Double-edged Sword
by Frog-kun
Summary: Alternate take on the SAO arc. Kirito's dual sword wielding ability turns out to be a double-edged sword when the rest of the SAO players think of him not just as a Beater but as someone who has a connection to Kayaba himself. It's not just the PKers who are out for his blood… Warning: Reviews contain spoilers.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: **This is an alternate version of the SAO arc set after episode 9. All the essential details of the story, like Kirito being a beater and his meeting with Asuna, remain intact. But anything that actually _happens _in this story will be original content.

To recap: Kirito and gang have just defeated The Gleam Eyes, the boss on the 74th floor.

**Chapter 1**

Asuna was tired.

For every single day in the last two years, she had been working for more than twelve hours with little to no breaks. Yet her exhaustion was not a physical one – it was almost purely mental, a kind of heavy, sinking feeling in her chest she could do little to shake. It was not a feeling she could readily explain to others, but when she mentioned it to Kirito, he nodded as if he understood.

It was like she had taken the jumbled thoughts in her brain, distilled it into a usable item and traded it to Kirito. He was a quiet but thoughtful type – kind of a dreamer, she would have described him had this been real life. But in Sword Art Online, a virtual world where death felt more real than reality, Kirito's pondering seemed like aloofness, and the faraway look he had in his eyes held a purpose neither of them could put their finger on.

"I just want to take a break, you know," she said to him with a sigh. "I'm just… sick of all of this, I guess."

"What are you going to do when you're alone?" He glanced at her once, meaningfully, and then looked back down, the corners of his mouth twitching distinctly downwards.

Asuna wondered if he was upset. "I haven't thought yet," she replied. Her hand hovered over her rapier. Even though they were travelling through a safe zone, her survival habits were difficult to shake. "I'm trying to rediscover something, I guess."

"Like the taste of mayonnaise?"

Kirito's oblique reference to her cooking caused Asuna to smile. She had experimented so much with all the various ingredients in the SAO world she had maxed out her cooking stat. Really, it was such a joke. You couldn't _master _things in real life to the extent that further improvement was impossible. It was what made the whole thing so futile.

"Yeah, a little bit like that," she admitted.

"I hope your guild gives you the time off."

He meant it. She could see it in his face.

It made her feel a little light-headed, actually. "I hope so too," she said. It didn't seem like such an impossibility at that moment. "And what about you, Kirito-kun? What are you going to do?"

"Stay at Agil's," he muttered.

He didn't want to attract attention after he had revealed his Unique Skill. Asuna nodded at that. For now, it meant goodbye for them.

"It was nice to party with you, Kirito-kun. Let's do it again sometime."

He paused. It wasn't hesitation that crossed his features but rather a quick flash of something inscrutable. If Asuna had to make a guess, it was almost vulnerability.

Or maybe something else…?

"Okay," he said finally. "That'd be fun."

Their conversation trickled into silence, and together they kept on walking in wordless content. Soon it was time for them to part ways.

They stopped outside the looming steel tower of Knights of the Blood HQ. Kirito had agreed to walk her back to where she belonged before heading off in his own direction.

"Thanks for saving us all back in the dungeon," Asuna said, as she raised her hand in a farewell gesture. "You were a real hero out there."

He hesitated, as if about to refute her statement, but then he stopped and smiled, both sheepishly and with quiet pride. Neither of them could forget what had happened in that dungeon. "I'll see you later, Asuna," he said. With that, he activated his teleport crystal and promptly vanished with a light blue flash of light.

Asuna stood there at the gate for a moment, staring at the spot where Kirito had once been. Now that he was gone, an inexplicable sense of unease came over her, as if she would never see him again.

It was a silly thought. After his performance against The Gleam Eyes, Kirito was indisputably the strongest player in SAO.

Well, after Heathcliff, that was.

* * *

The Paladin gazed at Asuna with level eyes, resting his chin over his folded hands. He was not a terribly imposing figure to look at, but his presence made you want to sit very still as his eyes looked over you. After he did that, he smiled. He was not that cold of a man.

"I heard about your hard work in the dungeon. You did well, Asuna."

Asuna was well aware that she had really done the exact sum of zero plus zero, thank you very much. But she didn't mention that because Heathcliff was not the sort of person one cracked jokes with.

She coughed and cleared her throat. It was best to cut to the chase. "I'd like to apply for leave," she said. To her dismay, her voice did not come out as strongly as she would have liked. She had worked for Heathcliff for over a year and she still could not help but feel a little nervous around him.

Though, she added to herself, if it wasn't for him, she would probably never have risen as high as she did in the guild. After Kirito, Heathcliff was her first real ally in Aincrad – first real ally anywhere, Asuna could not help but think.

So it filled her with profound disappointment when Heathcliff shook his head gravely at her.

"Asuna," he uttered seriously, leaning forward in his chair. The other four senior members of the guild sat silently at the table, their faces blank with stony disapproval. Asuna's heart sank. "You're one of the strongest members of our guild," Heathcliff went on. "Without you, we wouldn't be able to advance as far as we have and you know it."

She did. Kirito may have been the star of the show this time, but Asuna's speed and skill with a rapier was a constant support, and no one noticed these things better than Heathcliff.

Or was it, Asuna wondered to herself, because she was a girl? Though it discomforted her, she was aware that as one of the game's few female players (and the only one on the front lines), she was something of an idol in the SAO world. More than a few men had entered the guild in an attempt to court her. Not for the first time, Asuna wondered if the Knights of Blood used her as a poster girl of sorts. Yes, she was strong, but the search for validity in the eyes of others was a perennial exercise in futility.

But she was not yet ready to give up. "It won't be a long break. I just need time to myself."

"Was it Kirito who planted this idea in your head?"

Asuna let out a small gasp at the unexpected question. Heathcliff looked at her searchingly, not betraying an ounce of emotion on his face. Then he closed his eyes, sighed and leaned back.

"I heard about his Dual Blades ability," he said quietly. "He is the second Unique Skill user in this world."

Asuna nodded, not sure where this was going.

"That man must surely be dangerous, Asuna."

Asuna gasped again, this time with indignation. "He is not! You would know that! You've fought with him before, Commander Heathcliff!"

"I cannot help but wonder," Heathcliff mused aloud, "what other things he may be hiding."

Asuna could hardly believe her ears. She was not sure if Heathcliff was really earnest about what he was saying. He was certainly not joking, but his tone was light, even whimsical.

Like he was _curious_.

Asuna dropped her arms by her side and said nothing. Truth be told, she knew nothing about Kirito, not his likes, his dislikes or even his hobbies (though she would take a wild guess from the circumstances and say he was into video games). He was a solo player through and through, and he mostly kept to himself. They were friends, but she couldn't really say she _knew _him.

"Kirito-kun has nothing to do with thi-" Asuna began feebly, but Heathcliff cut her off.

"There are rumours," he said, "that Kirito may have received that skill from Kayaba Akihito himself."

_That _threw her off. It was more than just jealousy Kirito had to deal with now. It was outright sabotage. Asuna simply gaped.

"It's something to look into, isn't it?" Heathcliff said ponderously. Looking at Asuna, there was a question in his eyes: _just how much do you know? _And then, more importantly: _how much do you think _I _know? _"The other players have generally agreed that I got my Unique Skill for being the leader of the game's most powerful guild. But what has Kirito done to deserve his skill?"

"I… I don't know. But Commander Heathcliff, you don't seriously _believe-_"

Heathcliff opened his eyes. His steely grey eyes were almost unnerving in their calmness. "I never said what I thought. I'd like to see what the other players think of this. That's why I've called an inquisition together."

"An inquisition?" Asuna repeated, now morbidly curious.

"A trial. Something like this must be discussed openly. Asuna, I'd like you to go and collect Kirito. I can't let you take your leave until you do this for me."

A trial. Such a thing was unprecedented in the virtual world. The game's internal criminal code changed players' cursors to orange whenever a cardinal sin was committed, but there was no centralised system of justice. The Army was supposedly in charge of maintaining order, but they mostly did their own thing.

Asuna was not sure what to think. No matter how she looked at it, it was a precarious situation for Kirito. Yet she would not attain that freedom she desired if she did not turn him in.

Besides, she reminded herself, it wasn't as if Kirito could hide away in Agil's shop forever. If he knew about these rumours, he would probably step out and address them himself. She might as well be the one to let him know. As a Beater, Kirito had never been a popular player among the frontliners. Someone clearly had a grudge against him to claim he had a relation to Kayaba. What was next, that he had actually been responsible for trapping everyone inside this death game for two years?

She made sure to look her superior in the eyes as she responded to him. "Yes, Commander Heathcliff. I'll bring Kirito-kun here."

She was unable to shake the feeling that she was being used. Inwardly, she groaned; she was just so tired.

* * *

Agil was pleased to see her, just like he was pleased to see anyone – until he found out Asuna was not interested in buying or selling anything, at which point he was only half-joking when he said the door was that way and by the way, son, I am disappoint.

Asuna quite liked Agil. He carried about him an air of nonchalant good humour that never ceased to feel refreshing. As a merchant, Agil knew a lot of things, not just about the items in the game but about all sorts of topics.

Once, when Asuna was trying to barter with him about the price of her Wind Fleuret, they had somehow unintentionally ended up talking about economics in Aincrad in general.

"I can tell you, Kayaba is a lot of things," Agil had said dryly, "but an economist he is not. The inflation in this world is something awful, as I'm sure you've noticed."

"And why's that?" Asuna had asked, her curiosity piqued.

"Because there's an endless inflow of col in this world. And unlike most MMOs, the rare but useless items don't push the market growth as much as they should. Instead, things like healing crystals become very expensive. It's just a sustenance-driven market. What's worse is that col is so easily obtainable from killing monsters, but a lot of players who stay on Level 1 can't get that kind of money. So the rich like you get richer and the poor get poorer. The Gini Coefficient in Aincrad would be a very scary number."

"Oh," Asuna had said, and from that day on, she had always paid the price Agil asked of her, no matter how inflated it was. He didn't talk about it, but Asuna had heard Kirito mention that Agil donated most of his profits to lower-level players.

Today, she wasn't interested in talking about virtual economics. "Where's Kirito-kun?" she asked Agil as she watched him turn on the kettle. "There's something I need to talk to him about."

"Kirito? He's already left."

Asuna was startled. "What?"

"Said he had something to do," Agil said casually. "You want your tea with milk?"

"None, thanks."

"Any sugar?"

Asuna was starting to get fidgety. She opened up her main menu and scrolled down to her friend list until she could see Kirito's name displayed. According to her menu, he was on the newly opened Level 75 – just what was he doing there?

"Asuna, are you all right?" She could hear Agil calling out to her from beyond the distorted little box of her anxiety.

"Yes, I'm fine," Asuna said, a little shakily. "And no sugars either, thanks."

Her eyes were still trained on the menu, her brows furrowed in concentration. She had no idea what Kirito was actually doing. In her mind, she pictured several scenarios – maybe he was out level grinding? Or maybe trying to clear the next dungeon? Perhaps he had heard of a unique quest on Level 75?

In the end, none of these guesses were correct.

Before Asuna's eyes, the green icon above Kirito's name flickered, and then it turned to a sickening shade of orange.

* * *

**Author's note: **This is my NaNoWriMo novel, so it was written within a month. Be warned of typos and other writing/pacing errors that plague these sorts of projects.

This is my second (and probably last) SAO fic. You can check out 'Game Over' if you like – it's a completely different kind of story from this, though.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

When Klein first heard that Kirito had been arrested on the charge of PKing, he choked on his noodles and promptly fell backwards off his chair.

"Boss, you okay?" asked Dale, who was mostly wondering how his guild leader could fall into such a convoluted position. It looked rather painful to have one leg entangled with a chair and the other dangling awkwardly over one's head.

Klein opened his mouth and let out a string of expletives that were mercifully censored by the game's Ethics Code.

"Don't think he lost any HP from that, do you?" Issin remarked.

"Death by wooden chair," said Harry One sagaciously.

Fortunately for Klein, he appeared not to have taken any damage, and after a moment of scrambling and shuffling the chair around (which took a bit longer than it should have), he was back on his feet, though his face was still red and, more than anything, he was at a loss for words.

He wasn't to know it, but it was the exact same expression he had on two years ago, when he first discovered that he was trapped in a death game he only barely understood how to play.

"I don't believe – Kirito would never do something like that!" he exclaimed, slamming his fist on the table. The other members of Fuurinkazan glanced at each other uneasily, unsure of what to say. Kirito was Klein's friend, not theirs. They barely knew the guy.

"Well, maybe it was just a rumour," Dale said finally with a shrug. "You can't believe everything you hear around these parts."

"Yeah," said Harry One, as he scratched his (now) hairless armpits. People didn't synchronise their Nerve Gears with their armpits. Poor Harry One – he had lost the one attribute that had stood out most about him in real life. "Like how Heathcliff's got a Holy Blade ability and his HP's never gone into the yellow zone. You can't believe all of that."

"That's true, you moron," Issin said tartly.

Klein simply looked down and smiled ruefully. "Thanks, you guys," he said. His smile twitched up even further as a sense of purpose spread across his face. "I'm gonna check it out myself. I won't take long, so just hold the fort while I'm gone."

It was relevant because they actually were inside a fort – on Level 21, to be exact. They had established the Fuurinkazan headquarters in one of the relatively safe areas in SAO, a long ocean of grass with cherry blossom trees in perpetual bloom. Out of all the levels in the game, it was the area that resembled their former university campus the most.

The interior of the fort was very much like the inside of a boy's dorm, no further description necessary. Not only were there no cleaners in SAO, there were no managers pestering you to clean up yourself, either. Despite all that, it was surprisingly clean, mostly because items that were used vanished altogether, leaving no mess behind. It was still cluttered with equipment, and to walk around required an awkward, shuffling gait or ruthlessly kicking battleaxes around as if they were soccer balls. The dirty dishes were piled up into a small mountain in the sink, and on the wall there hung a demotivational poster that Issin drew: "WHEN I PUT ON MY NERVE GEAR I TOUCHED MYSELF". Klein liked it there; it felt like home, though for now he would have to leave.

Cheerfully enough, he waved his friends goodbye, and then, as his fingers pressed to use his teleport crystal, a grim expression settled across his features. He was going to find Kirito. If there was one person in the world whose innocence he could be convinced of, it was that of the awkward young boy who had tried so hard to be a man on the day the madness broke out.

* * *

Klein disliked the landscape on Level 55. It wasn't nicknamed the Steel City for nothing. There seemed to be no personality whatsoever in the steel towers that featured prominently in the living area. You honestly couldn't have picked a more different place from Level 21. Klein appreciated the variety, but his bad impression was only further reinforced when he noticed the sombre looks on people's faces as they shuffled around the town. It seemed everyone was heading towards the plaza, where Kirito's trial was taking place.

Klein just hoped he was okay.

As he expected, a considerable crowd had gathered around the plaza. Klein craned his neck but he could not see well past the swarm of shuffling bodies. He thought he could catch a glimpse of Kirito's signature black coat, but he was unable to see his friend's face. What kind of expression was he wearing?

As Klein continued to squint in utter concentration, he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and spotted Asuna from the Knights of the Blood waving at him.

"You're Klein, aren't you...? Kirito-kun's friend…?"

She had covered her mouth with her hand, her eyebrows scrunched in grim contemplation. Though she had greeted him first, she seemed more than a little distracted herself.

Klein instantly decided that he could not show his worry around her.

"Yo, Asuna." He waved back. "Glad you still remember me!"

Considering they had only met yesterday, how could she not? Aware of this fact, Asuna giggled, and for a moment, her expression cleared.

But as the crowd murmured around her, she seemed to draw herself up a little and soon enough the frown returned.

"You don't believe Kirito-kun's really killed someone, do you?"

"Of course not!" Klein insisted loudly. "It must've been a mistake."

"Klein… his icon's red. It turned orange, and now it's red."

Klein stiffened. It was like the game itself had spoken for them. This wasn't like real life, where people could hide their sins. Players who did the wrong thing had to suffer with the mark that was put upon them.

"But how…?" Klein asked Asuna, his eyes wide.

She shook her head. "Your guess is as good as mine. But I can't bring myself to believe that Kirito-kun is that kind of person."

"Maybe there's been some kind of mistake…"

"Maybe," Asuna murmured, but she said nothing more. The murmuring in the crowd started to die away as the trial itself began.

Klein could hear Heathcliff's voice ring out firmly. "We've called you here today to judge you, Kirito. You may state your case. We are listening to you, so please tell the truth as you see it."

It seemed like a fair enough thing to say, and for a moment, Klein was relieved. Maybe this would be a fair trial after all. Kirito spoke in a sullen, subdued tone of voice, as if he could not quite believe the truth as he saw it himself.

"I don't know what happened. My icon turned red by itself. I didn't do anything."

"He lies!" a man in red armour sitting next to Heathcliff stood up and yelled feverishly. ("That's Kuradeel," Asuna whispered to Klein, wrinkling her nose. "He was my bodyguard.") "That man is a PKer! Clearly, he has abused his own power!"

"Indeed," Heathcliff said quietly. "The system is a consistent one. The player icon would not have turned red without reason."

"Those dual blades, all that power," Kuradeel went on strongly. "He deserves none of it if he is so hell-bent on the destruction of our peace and order here in this world!"

"I don't know where I got that Unique Skill either!" Kirito insisted. He was starting to sound like a cornered rat. "I think there's an anomaly in the system. No one knows where the Unique Skills come from!"

Things were definitely looking bad for Kirito. Klein clenched his fist – he was just one inch from stepping up to Kuradeel and punching him on the face. But this was a formal trial – there was no way he could interrupt something so serious. Glancing at Asuna, he could see the exact same thought process evident on her face.

After a long pause, Heathcliff spoke up again.

"Kirito, your guilt is something that cannot be argued. However, as a level 96 swordsman and a frontliner, your contribution in clearing the game would greatly be missed. It would be fruitless to execute or even to detain you without first learning how to replicate your unique strength. I have heard that you have some kind of communication with Kayaba. With that being the case-"

"That's not true at all!" Kirito insisted wildly. "That's not true and you know it!"

"With that being the case," Heathcliff went on, "I have a proposal for you. I'd like to see the true extent of your power, something that you have kept partially hidden from us for quite some time, it seems. You are a solo player, Kirito. I want to see how well you handle this floor's boss by yourself."

The crowd suddenly started to murmur once again. Klein stood frozen while Asuna's eyes widened and she roared: "That's murder! No one can take on a floor boss by himself!"

No one in SAO had ever been foolish enough to even attempt such a thing. The bigger the parties that took on the floor bosses, the better. And even then, that did not guarantee that everyone would come out alive. The last boss had killed three people – it was a sight that Klein was not going to forget in a hurry.

If Heathcliff and the others went through with this, Kirito was as good as dead.

"Oh, yes, that's a very good idea!" Kuradeel said gleefully. "If Kirito is really as strong as he claims to be, something like clearing the game would be such a small matter for him."

"I never said I was strong!"

But no one was listening now. Heathcliff turned to the crowd and said, "We'll take a democratic vote for this. Those in favour, raise your hand."

… And to Klein's unending horror, there was a clear majority.

"This is insanity!" he exclaimed. "How could everyone just-?"

He stopped because he knew. Kirito was not a popular player in SAO, even under the best of circumstances. He was a Beater, ruthlessly obsessed with clearing the game and not helping any others. The fact that he had refused to join any guilds was interpreted as an act of snobbery by other players, and his strength despite doing everything by himself was not just something to be envied but also something to be despised.

But this was something Klein had never held against Kirito, even when the younger boy had left him behind on the first day. It was because of one simple sentiment which seemed to exude off Kirito, no matter what the awkwardly standoffish swordsman claimed in conversation – he would rather be the one in danger than let that fate fall onto others. Perhaps it was obvious to Klein because he had met Kirito before the rules of the game were imposed, but people in SAO had stopped using normal social conventions to judge others long ago.

Now that Kirito was a red player, no one was holding back their disdain any longer. The punishment of being thrown into a dungeon to fend for himself was exactly that – punishment for the crime of PKing.

"No," Kirito gasped. He had fallen to the ground, covering his face with his hands. "No!"

"You think the rules of the universe bend themselves for you, Kirito?" Kuradeel jeered, while Heathcliff simply closed his eyes.

Klein turned to Asuna. Her fists were shaking by her side. He nodded towards her.

The two of them stepped forward into the thick of the crowd, pushing their way through the crowd.

"We're going to fight the boss with him!" they declared in unison.

Heathcliff's eyes shot open, betraying for the first time a very real sense of shock. Then he blinked and his calmness was back.

Kuradeel, on the other hand, was livid.

"Asuna-sama, what nonsense are you suggesting? Don't you dare! You'll be killed!"

"I'll die with Kirito-kun, then," Asuna said through gritted teeth. "And you know what? I quit this guild! If this is how you treat human lives, then I'm better off being a solo player just like Kirito-kun!"

"Asuna… don't."

The stern disapproval came, not from Heathcliff or Kuradeel, but from Kirito, who had pulled his face away from his hands long enough to stare up at Asuna. His complexion was pale but there was a very real and dogged concern in his eyes.

"And you too, Klein," Kirito went on. "You don't have to do this for me. I'll clear the floor myself."

His gaze turned to Klein. Since donning his black coat, Kirito had come to seem much older-looking than he really was, but looking down onto the boy's face, Klein could see him as he was, as he had _been _on the first day. Kirito was scared. He had a soft face, one that had not suffered much physical hardship, but he was just so, so lost.

"I left you behind, Klein." His eyes skirted to the side. "I don't deserve it."

_Bullshit_, thought Klein.

He walked over to Kirito and ruffled the younger boy on the head. "Chin up, partner," he said. "You're not facing this alone."

Kirito lowered his head. It was evident that he did not know what to say. "Klein…"

Klein smiled. Later on, he would feel guilty for his guild partners but he could not feel regret for his decision. It felt natural and right.

He was only shaken from his reverie when he heard Heathcliff speaking. The KoB leader was directing his words to Asuna.

"This was an experiment to test Kirito alone."

"It's still that kind of test," Asuna insisted proudly. Her chin was held high. "If Kirito-kun is strong, he can protect me. I wash my hands of this guild."

"Commander Heathcliff, you can't let her do this! It's madness!" Kuradeel was starting to look frantic now.

In response, Heathcliff raised his hand, both to still the wildly gesticulating senior guild member and also the crowd.

"Asuna," he said sternly, and with that single word, all attention was on him. "Kirito will be held on this floor until the time comes for him to face his task. As for your suggestion, Kirito himself disapproves. I will condone you lending your assistance to him until the rest of the floor is cleared, but unless you are willing to fight me and win, I will not accept your resignation, nor will I let you enter the boss room. Is that understood?"

Winning against Heathcliff?

No one could manage that, Klein thought with dismay.

"This is for your own good and safety," Heathcliff went on. "I will not jeopardise the lives of those who I am responsible for."

"I wonder how much you really trust me," Asuna muttered bitterly. Then she looked up, her lips pursing with determination. "Fine, then. I'll see if I won't change your mind by the time the floor is cleared. It's not like I don't have a plan."

Then she turned to Klein. "Party with me, Klein."

"Huh? What? Why?" Klein said dumbly.

Asuna smiled. In the context of the world, she might have been nothing more than a jumble of pixels, but her smile was breathtaking both in its beauty and in its confidence. It was the sort of smile that made you trust it the moment you saw it, as if good things were about to happen.

"We're going on a quest," Asuna said.

* * *

**Author's note: **Orange and red players can't enter towns in canon, but I had to disregard that rule to make this story work. Sorry about that.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

The bars were smooth and cold to touch. It occurred to Kirito that strength in the SAO world was just so selective. A patient and strong man sitting behind these bars could have sawed away and eventually broken free, but that was impossible for Kirito no matter how high his level was. The bars – as he discovered after touching them – were an Immortal Object, unable to take any damage. As a result, Kirito probably had to be the only prisoner in the world who still had his dual swords on him.

He also knew exactly how long he lay there, in a cell in the basement of the KoB HQ. There was a clock on his main menu, though the seconds seemed to tick by agonisingly slowly. To busy himself, Kirito spent time looking through his stats and items again, reading them over and over until the words lost meaning to him.

He leaned back, until his head hit the cold, hard stone of the grey-coloured wall behind him. He shivered, lowered his head, and hugged his knees.

A tap on the bars alerted him that he had a visitor and Kirito quickly straightened himself up, feeling inexplicably embarrassed. He had not wanted anyone to see him like this.

And anyway, who would want to…?

"Kirito-kun, it's me, Asuna."

The girl smiled at him cheerfully through the gap in the bars. She was being so brave for him, he could see that. He had no idea how to respond to such kindness.

"Asuna, what are you doing here?"

Asuna huffed and pulled a small red container out of her menu. It appeared in her hand, and she placed it inside the cell on the floor. "I brought you lunch. Commander Heathcliff said that was fine."

In spite of himself, a smile burst across Kirito's face. He was quickly coming to realise that there was nothing as good as Asuna's cooking at cheering him up.

Soon enough, though, his common sense diluted his joy.

"But Asuna, you really didn't need to do any of this for me."

"Look, it's fine. We're friends, Kirito-kun. In return, I just want you to tell me everything that happened up until you became a red player."

That was so like Asuna, keeping things moving along. She was making him feel less indebted to her by turning this into a transaction of sorts.

But he could not stop the pinpricks of warmth in his heart.

"It was… strange. I can't explain anything that happened."

Now that he was speaking about it, he could feel the confusion cloud his mind again. He had had quite some time to think through the whole matter now and he was still no closer to solving the mystery.

"I was intending to hide in Agil's place after I dropped you off, but after I got to Agil's place, I got a strange message."

"A strange message…?"

"A message from the admin."

Asuna made a sudden jerking movement. "You mean from _Kayaba_?" No player had ever received any messages from Kayaba since the tutorial on the first day.

Kirito nodded grimly. "It said: 'Come to the 75th floor if you want to find me.' So I did, but no one came to meet me."

"And that's when your player icon turned red?"

"Yeah. And that's the moment when a bunch of people from the Army found me. I quickly deleted the message from Kayaba when that happened, so no one saw it. It would have made things worse."

"That was a good call. People were already thinking you were getting some kind of help from Kayaba."

Kirito frowned. Asuna's cooking or no, his appetite was totally gone amid the uneasy sensations pulling his stomach.

"I was being set up, Asuna."

"I can see that," she said. "But why would Kayaba go out of his way to sabotage _you_? What's in it for him? And why now?"

Kirito shrugged and looked down. "Your guess is as good as mine."

Asuna stroked her chin in contemplation before coming to a decision. "Well, for now, we have to focus on getting you out of this alive."

"You said you had a plan. What's this about you and Klein going on a quest?"

"Oh, that." Asuna smiled. "We're going to look for something that'll help you defeat the boss. I don't know what it's called yet, but we'll find it."

It all sounded very vague to Kirito, but Asuna's confidence was infectious. For the first time, Kirito thought maybe he would have a chance after all. Who could say?

"… Thank you, Asuna."

"You're welcome." She straightened herself up. "Don't forget you promised to party with me again sometime. I'm holding you to that."

Asuna probably had no idea how she made Kirito feel. He was fairly certain that if there were no bars in the way, he would have hugged her – even though he was not a very touchy-feely person at all. His gratitude was simply that strong.

"I have to go now, Kirito-kun. Take care of yourself, okay? And make sure you eat!"

"Good luck, Asuna."

Kirito was still smiling when Asuna was gone.

* * *

"I don't get it," Klein said to Asuna for the umpteenth time.

Asuna sighed. It wasn't that Klein was stupid, she realised, because after she explained what had happened to Kirito, she had no idea how to explain it either. Klein had raged hard about Kayaba, but there was nothing either of them could do about it and they both knew it. There were other things to think about, too. Now that the two of them had partied up and were making their way down to the 48th floor together, they had time to think about the trial they had just witnessed. And some of the things they had witnessed just hadn't added up.

"If Heathcliff is so OP, why aren't the same charges made against him?" Klein asked, using the gamer term for 'Overpowered'.

"It's because everyone respects Heathcliff," Asuna explained. "You've seen for yourself – he's got this real charisma about him."

Heathcliff had the power to make even Asuna wordlessly obey him. Neither she nor Klein mentioned it, but the thought was on both their minds.

"That trial was such a joke," Klein said suddenly. "No way was that legit."

It was his way of making her feel better.

"It reminds me of the Spanish Inquisition," Asuna murmured. "Like Kirito-kun was branded a heretic in front of everyone."

"The Spanish Inquisition? When was that?"

"It started in the 15th century and lasted till the 19th century. It was a systematic witch hunt." Asuna paused. Knowledge she didn't realise she still had poured from her mind to her mouth. "They had this thing called a strappado where they tied your hands behind your back and hung you up on a rack, and sometimes it pulled your shoulders out of their sockets."

Klein was alarmed. "Let's hope that doesn't happen to Kirito! Christ! How do you know all of this stuff, Asuna?"

"I had to write an essay about it back in middle school." Asuna scratched her cheek. "For World History class."

It seemed like such a lifetime ago. Now that Asuna was consciously thinking about the knowledge she had gleaned from the subject, it occurred to her that she actually didn't remember as much as she thought. Some things had always stood out vividly, but for the first time, she was conscious of all the hazy spots in her memory. She didn't think she would be able to solve a quadratic equation anymore and, beyond gaming terms, her English was more or less totally nonexistent.

If she went back to school, she would never score top of the class ever again.

The idea did not fill her with as much dread and despair as it would have two years ago. But Asuna still shivered. Even if she did manage to get out of SAO, just what was her life going to be like? Was it going to lose all of its meaning again?

Willfully, Asuna pushed such thoughts aside. She had to think about Kirito now.

"So where are you taking me?" Klein asked, stepping into pace beside her. The living area of the 48th floor was like a small, cozy country town, complete with fields tended by players and NPcs alike and cows and sheep chewing meditatively on the grass. It was the kind of place that made you want to slow down and smell the digital roses.

"A friend of mine lives here," Asuna explained patiently. "She's a weaponsmith. She's helped me and Kirito-kun before so it's fine."

"She?"

Asuna couldn't help but laugh at how Klein visibly brightened up. He was obvious, but she didn't mind that kind of honesty.

… though it would probably not make a very good impression on Lizbeth.

Asuna shrugged. She kind of wanted to see how this would go.

* * *

Lizbeth was unimpressed.

"So who's this guy?" she asked Asuna pointedly after Klein made his bumbling "twenty-four and a bachelor" speech.

"That's Kirito-kun's friend," Asuna said, and watched Lizbeth's eyebrows rise in contemplation.

"Well, if that's how it is…" Lizbeth said finally, before turning to the still rambling Klein. "So, Klein-san, is it? What kind of weapon do you want me to make for you? I see you're a katana user."

Lizbeth's shop was both neat and concise in its array of weaponry. It had that air of feminine touch about it, though there was nothing fancy about the weapons themselves. Lizbeth did not believe in artificially inflating a weapon's price by overly decorating their hilts with gem pieces – instead, she pushed its attributes as high as the raw materials would let her. The unpretentiousness and homeliness of her shop made it rather comfortable for customers to be in.

"Actually," Klein said, perfectly seriously now. "This is about Kirito."

One could practically _see _the self-confident smile drop from Lizbeth's face. After Asuna explained what had happened on the 55th floor, Lizbeth looked just about ready to cry.

"They wouldn't… I can't believe… That's _horrible_!"

"Yeah," said Asuna with a sad smile. "I know."

The two girls looked down at the floor rather soberly. Klein cleared his throat.

"Asuna said you could help Kirito."

"Me?" Lizbeth said, confused. "How?"

Asuna drew her head up. "Lizbeth, you know which floor was the last one we cleared? Level 74."

Slowly, a look of understanding dawned on Lizbeth's face.

"I don't get it," said Klein, for the umpteenth and first time.

"Ah, you're probably from a clearing guild so you wouldn't pay attention to these kinds of details, but on every twenty-fifth floor, it becomes possible to find a certain kind of ore. They get more common to find as you progress to higher levels, but on the seventy-fifth floor it should be possible to find a very rare ore. I think that's probably why the boss fights on each twenty-fifth level are so hard, or so I've heard."

Lizbeth explained all of this matter-of-factly. She was a cute girl on the outside, but she had the cold and calculating business acumen of a man, and she was well aware of the fact.

"What kind of rare ore?" Klein asked, looking extremely interested.

"From what I've heard from some NPCs, I think it would be Orichalcum. It's the only ore we players haven't yet come across but they still mention it on their item lists. With that kind of material, I could make the ultimate weapon for Kirito-kun. How long do you have until his, well…?"

Asuna considered. "It takes about two or three weeks on average for the floor map to be cleared."

"Good," said Lizbeth briskly. "If you can find the Orichalcum on the 75th floor in about a week and bring it to me, I'll use the rest of the time to forge the sword."

Then she was quiet for a moment, frowning.

"What is it, Lizbeth?" Asuna asked curiously.

Lizbeth glanced at the swords on display and then back towards Asuna and Klein. "My Slash Weapon Forging level is on 923 right now, but the sword I want to make has to be beyond levels."

"Beyond levels?"

"I don't know how to explain it. I've been forging equipment for a long time, but I think there's a sword that can be made that goes beyond the system of the game. I truly believe that."

"Sounds hard," Klein remarked thoughtfully.

Lizbeth smiled. Asuna noticed her fingers twitch. It was what Lizbeth did when she was getting ready to start forging – she was always literally raring to go. Until the day Asuna returned from her quest, Lizbeth would be inside her forge raising up her levels so that the sword she made for Kirito would truly be a masterpiece.

He needed it if he was going to face off with that boss and come out alive.

At that moment, the bells at the door chimed as a man entered the shop.

"Asuna! Klein! I knew I'd find you here."

It was Agil, sporting his trusty battleaxe. "Hey!" Klein called out to him casually. The two men exchanged fist bumps.

"What are you doing here?" Asuna asked, puzzled.

At that, Agil smiled knowingly and laid his battleaxe down on the table in front of Lizbeth. "Joining you on your quest, Asuna, what do you say? I figured you'd be looking for the Orichalcum, which I happen to need just as much as you do. It'll fetch a pretty price. Besides, I can't say I'm not concerned about Kirito's situation too."

It was a pleasant surprise. Kirito would probably have been more than a little shocked himself. He had more friends than he realised. In his place, Asuna felt a warm glow in her heart.

"We'd be glad to have you along, Agil."

"Well, that's that, then," Lizbeth said cheerfully. "Isn't it time for you to go rescue your beloved Kirito-kun, Asuna?"

Asuna instantly reddened in the face.

"Sh-Shut up!"

"What's this about Kirito and Asuna being a couple?" Agil looked at Asuna wryly. Asuna simply scowled.

"Guess there's no room in your heart for me, huh?" Klein said with an easygoing sigh.

Asuna threw a glare at the grinning Lizbeth. It was one thing to be teased in private, quite another to feel herself get flustered in front of two men. And no, she did not like Kirito!

(Well, maybe a little bit.)

(…_Gah_.)

* * *

They set off promptly from Lizbeth's shop, making sure to stock up on crystals before they teleported to the 75th floor.

The living area of the 75th floor, called Collinia on the map, was already populated by busy frontliners setting up their shops and temporary guild forts. Tall stone aqueducts encircled the Roman-themed city and, not for the first time, Asuna was impressed by the level of detail that went into the floor design. A giant black statue of The Thinker, at least twelve feet tall, was situated in the centre of the gate plaza. The interior of the NPC shops were lined with murals, most of them depicting bull sports and war activities. Amusingly enough, a statue of Michelangelo's David was censored with a blurry white film between the legs.

Things were a lot quieter towards the outskirts of town. They asked around to see if anyone knew about the Orichalcum but neither players nor NPCs seemed to have information. In the end, they settled down for lunch, and Asuna's sandwiches were devoured with considerable alacrity.

It was, Asuna reflected, quite a different experience partying with Klein and Agil as opposed to Kirito. Kirito had never exactly been a smooth conversationalist. Meanwhile, Klein and Agil lapped up company with obvious gusto and consummate ease. With Kirito, Asuna experienced a sense of companionship; with Klein and Agil, Asuna simply had fun.

"Right, so what are gonna to do now?" Asuna asked, peering up at the sky. The day was still young and the whole world was still ripe for exploring.

"Looks like we'll have to venture out onto the fields ourselves," said Agil.

Klein grinned. "I'm totally psyched for this." He tensed his biceps.

"Put those away," said Agil with a snort. "Don't wanna draw in all the ladies and distract us from the quest at hand."

"As if I could be impressed by such a small display," Asuna said, rolling her eyes.

"Shattered," said Klein, who was used to it now.

Asuna got to her feet, dusting off her battle skirt. "Come on, guys. Let's go while the sun's still out."

They had only been in the field for half a minute when they encountered their first monster.

Vorpal Hare – its display name read. Probably related to the Ragout Rabbit because of the similar sprite, though the Vorpal Hare's fur was purple and its eyes were wide and inky black. Asuna had never encountered this monster before. She drew out her rapier and watched as the Vorpal Hare cocked its head towards her.

Without even pausing to blink, Asuna unleashed her Linear ability, a quick-draw thrust attack that utilised her speed stat. It was her intention to finish the battle with one quick blow.

But the Vorpal Hare had other plans.

If Asuna had to estimate, her Linear required about a quarter-of-a-second time to evade or parry, but the Vorpal Hare was even faster than that. It darted right around Asuna altogether and, when she swung around to face it, it had sunk its teeth into Klein's arm.

"Holy cow!" Klein exclaimed, shaking his arm frantically. Before Asuna's eyes, Klein's HP bar was rapidly diminishing. By the time Klein pushed the monster off, it already taken half of his HP.

Agil swung his axe, which the small and lithe Vorpal Hare avoided with ease, darting to the side. That wasn't a good move, Asuna thought, until she noticed Agil signalling to her with his eyes. He was forcing the Vorpal Hare out of position – towards her.

She readied her rapier again.

As expected, the Vorpal Hare dodged Agil's axe and Klein's katana by spinning itself in the air. But in the air, it lost its ability to manoeuvre – the physics in SAO were modelled perfectly from reality. Asuna darted forward, readying her rapier.

The blade pushed through the Vorpal Hare's head, right between the eyes. It still wasn't dead, but Asuna held the skewered beast like that, watching it writhe. Klein slashed at it with his katana and that was the finishing blow.

There, the fight was done. Nobody had seriously expected to lose a random encounter battle – they had fought literally millions of these types of fights before.

But Asuna's eyes were wide and the chill that gripped her heart was very real.

"Are you okay, Klein?" she called out. Klein was using a potion and his HP bar was slowly rising back up into the green.

"Yeah, I'm fine, no problems here."

Asuna smiled weakly at Klein's assurance.

… If the random encounter monsters could take half a player's HP bar in one hit, just what was the boss going to be like?


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Rule number one of MMORPGs," said Klein with a flourish. "The cuter the monster, the more vicious the bugger is on the inside."

Asuna and Agil laughed at his joke, but it was the kind of laughter that made the silence that inevitably followed seem a little empty.

They were extra careful from then on not to get hit during the random battles. Agil used his high Parry skill to block the enemy's first attack and then Asuna used her speed to deliver rapid sword strikes. Klein covered them from behind. This was a routine they quickly settled into.

The frustrating part was that despite how strong the monsters had suddenly become, the experience drop rate did not match the difficulty. "It's like Kayaba is taunting us," Asuna said darkly.

Like in most RPGs, the amount of experience required to gain a level in SAO worked like a curve. The first few levels did not require much experience, but by the time a player reached Klein or Asuna's level it took hundreds of thousands of experience points to advance a level. Even if one constantly fought stronger enemies, the rate at which one grew was still extremely slow. Since levelling up was the only way to increase base stats like HP and strength, it was all very frustrating. The excessive level grinding was the less-than-glamorous part of living inside an MMORPG.

In a regular MMORPG where logging out was possible, the experience curve would not have been as much of a problem because players would have been able to take regular rests and there were plenty of gameplay options besides fighting. There probably would still have been a strong incentive to be a frontliner in an SAO where clearing the game was not paramount – the bosses dropped far, _far _more experience than the random encounter monsters and never respawned – so the reality was that mid-level players had difficulty catching up to the frontliners.

For people like Klein and Asuna, who made it their business to be on the frontlines, fighting random battles had long ago ceased to feel like playing a game or even like a chore. It was work, much in the same way a builder regarded building and a banker regarded banking.

That day, after hours of fighting, the three of them had cleared one-seventh of the floor map and gained no levels. To Klein, it was like working overtime for half-wages. The rocky terrain was difficult and exhausting to navigate and even though they were travelling lightly, it felt like they had not made much progress at all. When they stopped, they could still see the town in the distance when they looked back behind them.

Klein groaned. He could feel the fatigue spreading throughout his body. "Times like these when I realise how SAO is worse than a Korean MMO."

Agil and Asuna laughed. Then Asuna said, "Actually, I wouldn't know. SAO is my first MMO."

"Same here," said Agil. "My wife bought the game for me as a present and I thought I'd give it a try."

This surprised Klein. Asuna and Agil had always seemed so competent at the game he had always thought they must have been experienced in MMOs for years like Kirito was. Then again, anyone would probably get the hang of it after two years. He and his guild were no different.

"Should we head back to town or use a tent?" Agil asked suddenly. It was getting dark. Tents were the only items a player could use that ensured no monsters would attack during the night. They were costly and could not be used inside dungeons, so not that many players used them, preferring to sleep at inns.

"Wait," Asuna murmured, pointing ahead. "I think someone lives over there."

She was indicating towards a cave by the side of the mountain road. Wisps of smoke exuded from the entrance.

"Let's check it out," he said.

Klein nodded. The old feeling of adventure was coming back. He readied his katana in case there was an ambush and together, the three of them made their way towards the cave with Asuna leading the way.

She paused at the entrance. "Is anyone in there?" she called out.

No response.

This didn't actually mean the place was vacant. An NPC would not have responded from so far away. What this did mean was that there were no players inside.

"Let me check it out," Klein whispered to Asuna. "I've got a high Searching level."

"We'll back you up," said Agil. Asuna nodded.

Slowly, Klein inched his way into the cave, turning his head this way and that. It did not seem to be a particularly deep cave judging by the lack of stalagmites and stalactites (though that could have been an aesthetics choice). The entrance of the cave itself was small and the two men had to duck so as not to hit their heads. Squinting inside, Klein realised that the smoke came from around a bend in the cave.

He stepped in further. One steps, two steps. The silence was total and disquieting. Klein gulped and was reminded of a traditional dungeon crawler game, the type where all the enemies moved at the same time you did. If you rushed, you walked straight into the traps.

So Klein pricked his ears and inched forward, little by little.

When he turned the bend, he found himself confronted with a small living room. The oven was on – that was where the smoke was coming from. There was a tiny bed with stained white sheets on it but nothing else in the way of furniture.

A young boy was sitting on a rug that was laid out on the floor, rocking himself back and forth meditatively. A golden question mark was lit up above his head.

The signal for a quest. Klein exchanged glances with Agil and Asuna.

"Is something bothering you?" Klein asked the boy, and the boy lifted his head so that they could see his face for the first time.

He was a boy – probably about twelve – with messy brown hair and matching eyes. For a moment, those brown eyes seemed soulful and mildly depressed, and then the boy broke out into a grin. "Gotcha!" he declared. "Hahaha! I tricked you!"

"Oh, great," said Agil. "We got our hands on a bratty NPC."

"Is he gonna tell us the quest or not?" Asuna asked impatiently.

"What nonsense are you spouting?" said the boy with a careless shrug. "Gotta learn some respect."

Annoying NPCs were the bane of every RPG player's existence. "Now you listen to me-" Klein began.

"Wait, shut up," Asuna interjected bluntly. "It's a predetermined script. The kid'll get to the quest soon."

"Geez, you guys are lame. You don't even have any Orichalcum-"

"That's it!" Klein said excitedly. "Go on about the Orichalcum, kid."

"Well, aren't you a butthead?"

Klein's desire to pick up the boy, take him out the cave and throw him off the nearby cliff was steadily increasing by the second.

"Well, anyway, since you lamesters don't know anything, I'll explain." The boy threw his arms behind his shoulders and grinned.

He said that his name was Leon and that his father was a gladiator who owned a full set of Orichalcum weapons. As he spoke about his father, Leon's eyes seemed to light up with enthusiasm.

The quest, it seemed, was this: Leon wanted to give some of the bread he had made to his father, but he was supposed to stay home and wait until he came back. Could the heroes deliver the bread for him?

"Sure thing," said Klein. It was pretty clear from the mentions of Orichalcum that it was going to be the reward for the quest. They were in luck. Maybe SAO wasn't going to be so ruthlessly difficult after all.

Maybe. Please.

As soon as they accepted the quest, Leon visibly sighed in relief. Then he shrugged nonchalantly and grinned boyishly.

_Ah, kid's probably worried about his dad_, Klein thought. That made Klein wonder: how was _his _old man doing these days?

"Hahaha," Agil chuckled suddenly. "You're a softy just like Kirito when it comes to NPCs."

Ah, Kirito was probably one of those types who played RPGs for the stories as well as the gameplay. Actually, Klein skipped that kind of story-related text a lot of the time. It was just in SAO the dialogue was impossible to skip and the facial expressions were just so realistic you almost forgot you were in a game. Klein found himself doing that a lot more these days.

"Well, I vote we stay here for the night and start the quest properly tomorrow," said Asuna. "It's dark outside."

It was very dangerous to play at night. There weren't any experience bonuses either.

They played Rock Paper Scissors to see who would get to sleep on the bed. Klein won and, a little guiltily, he lay down on the sheets. Soon, though, he fell fast asleep. Video games were pretty exhausting.

* * *

Asuna was shaking him urgently.

"Klein, wake up. _Wake up_."

"'sup?" Klein said groggily.

"Cave's blocked," said Agil, who sitting cross-legged by the oven with his hands on the floor.

Klein sat up sharply. It took his mind a moment for all the implications to hit him. Where they trapped? "What happened?"

"During the night, looks like a boulder crash landed in front of the entrance." Asuna spoke with deliberate calmness. The cave was dark, save for a candle on the floor. Leon was still sitting on the rug on the floor, not having moved an inch since yesterday.

Klein got to his feet and checked out the entrance of the cave himself. Sure enough, a large, heavy rock was in the way – not even light from the outside could enter.

"Have you asked the kid?" Klein turned his head and asked.

"Find my dad!" Leon interjected. "He should be in the coliseum!"

That was a no, then. If the NPC was simply repeating his lines from yesterday, being trapped in the cave was not part of the quest.

"Let's try pushing the boulder outta the way!" Klein suggested.

"No good," said Agil, shaking his head. "I've already tried. You'd need at least ten people to make that thing budge."

"Can't break out through the walls either," said Asuna grimly. She jabbed the rock of the wall with her rapier, and the Immortal Object sign was all that came up.

"What about teleport crystals?" Klein asked.

"Looks like they don't work in here," Asuna responded. She put away her rapier and folded her arms, evidently in deep thought.

"So what are we gonna do?" Klein asked. "Wait till someone rescues us?"

He already felt fidgety. They had a quest to pursue!

Besides, what was the guarantee that anyone would find them? With a boulder in the way, the cave might not be noticeable from the outside. The floor maps for each level were huge – there was a chance that the frontliners would bypass this area altogether. It was such a small cave that it didn't even register on the map, as Klein discovered when he checked it out on his status menu.

"I don't get it," Klein muttered. Freak accidents didn't just _happen _in a video game. There was usually a pre-scripted event for these kinds of things. Unless it was a glitch… but that was hard to imagine in this case.

"Isn't it obvious?" said Asuna. "Someone pushed it down on us deliberately."

Klein was stunned. This was news to him. "_What_?!"

"Someone was following us yesterday," Agil said grimly. "But we were so fixated on avoiding damage from the monsters that we didn't notice."

"Damn it!" yelled Klein. "Who would have done this?"

"I'm guessing it's someone who doesn't want Kirito-kun to be helped," Asuna said quietly. Klein could only see part of her face because of how the cave was only partly lit, but from what he did see, she was frowning thunderously. "Someone wants us out of the way."

When Asuna put it that way, it made the question of the culprit both a lot easier and a lot harder. The problem was that they didn't know all of Kirito's enemies – and didn't Asuna mention earlier that Kayaba had set this whole situation up in the first place? There was just so much they didn't know.

"We shouldn't have head out so quickly on this quest," Klein said through gritted teeth. "We should've figured out who were up against first."

"What's done is done," said Agil with a shrug. "There was nothing we could've done to anticipate this. They would've gotten us somehow the moment we let our guards down."

Up until now, the only enemies Klein had ever had to face were simply monsters and the obstacles towards his own survival (which was _more _than enough to deal with, quite honestly). Because he and his guild were high-levelled, they had never had to worry about PKers. Yet now they were up against either unknown hostile players or Kayaba himself.

Klein scratched his head.

"Looks like the odds are stacked against us."

For some reason, ridiculously, this made him smile. So did Agil. The two men glanced at each other and shrugged.

"What are you two looking happy about?" Asuna asked, puzzled.

"Can't sit around moping forever," said Klein. "We'll figure out a way out of this for sure."

"You know how it is," said Agil. "Life's a shit sandwich. Eat it up."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

They were idiots, Asuna thought. Simply idiots. How could men be like this? Even Kirito had those moments of swaggering confidence. It was ridiculous.

Then again, it wasn't like she could talk. She was the one who had suggested they go on this crazy quest in the first place.

"So, um, what are you doing?" she asked Klein and Agil, who were sitting down perusing their menus very intently.

"Sending messages to our friends," said Agil, as if nothing was more obvious.

So much for the bright plans, Asuna thought. At least it was simple and straightforward. "Hang on, we can't do that," she said suddenly.

"Why not?" asked Klein.

"Heathcliff gave me permission to do this so I could have a chance to prove myself. If we asked any frontliners to bail us out here, word would probably get back to Heathcliff. I don't know if he'd let me continue searching for the Orichalcum on my own like this."

"Geez," said Klein. "Your guild members are such fascists."

But he closed the menu anyway.

"So what now?" he asked.

"Let's put our heads together," Asuna said.

First, they tried attacking the boulder with their weapons, but their attacks made barely a dent on it. Like most inanimate objects in SAO, the boulder could be manipulated by hands but it could not be targeted by Sword Skills like a monster was. Their weapons simply glazed off its surface.

"No good, Asuna," said Agil. "I hate to say it, but I think you'll have to swallow your pride and call for help."

"No, we can't," Asuna said adamantly. "There's gotta be a way… there's _got _to be… we're overlooking something here."

She stood very still with her jaw locked into place. Both her party members knew better than to press her now, when she was being stubborn.

If you lost in SAO, you died. So Asuna could never dream of losing. That was how she would have justified her state of mind to the others, but it appeared they understood without her having to explain it. Instead, they simply looked at each other, trying to think of an alternative plan.

"This is probably a dumb idea, but why don't we message Kirito?" Klein asked finally.

Asuna stared at him. "Huh? What for?"

"Well, you know what I was thinking," Klein said, scratching the back of his head. "Kirito always seems to know what to do, you know? He's a pretty resourceful lad."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Agil chuckled. "Go ahead and do it, Asuna."

"Why should we bother him?" Asuna grumbled. "He's not going to know what to do!"

"But it's worth a shot, at least," said Klein, looking meaningfully at Asuna. "Unless you have any better ideas?"

Asuna admitted that she didn't. Maybe, she conceded mentally, she really was taking her pride too far. But the whole point of this was to rescue Kirito – what was the point if he was the one who helped her? Anyway, how exactly could Kirito help them when he was stuck in a cell on the 55th floor? Talking about him only made her wish he was right beside her.

In the end, she sighed, opened up her menu and started typing up the message explaining their situation. "Look, we're just bothering him, guys," she said to her party members. "Gosh, I feel so _stupid_." She looked at her message and wrinkled her nose.

Before she could delete it in her embarrassment, Klein leaned over, took Asuna's hand and pressed send with it.

"No regrets," he said.

Asuna scowled at him.

She hoped with every fibre of her being that Kirito would ignore the message and not worry himself over her.

No such luck. Within moments, her screen lit up, announcing a message had arrived.

"Wow," said Agil. "That was quick."

Asuna groaned. This was going to be Kirito saying he didn't have a clue what to do. Oh well, may as well see exactly what he had to say.

"_Why don't you break the furniture?" _he had written.

Asuna raised her eyebrows.

Kirito sent another message. It appeared he could type faster than he could speak.

"_The NPCs are programmed to throw you out if you break their furniture. It doesn't matter if there are any obstacles in the way – you just get teleported out after they get mad so that the map can refresh itself. Oh, and you'll lose the amount of col that the furniture cost."_

Asuna's eyebrows were now reaching her hairline.

Kirito…

Kirito was _brilliant_.

How could she ever have doubted him?

"_How do you know all this?" _she asked.

"_It's something I noticed when I was a beta tester."_

Asuna had the sudden mental image of Kirito walking into random NPC houses and breaking their furniture, just to see what would happen.

She smiled to herself.

Kirito sure had an eye for detail, didn't he? She was sure no regular player would have taken note of such small things from so long ago. It was probably that attention to detail that had helped Kirito survive in this world. Yes, he was talented with his sword and he level grinded hard, but it was the little things that made him the top player that he was.

"I love this kid," said Klein when he read the message. He sat down, opened up his menu and started typing up a message of his own.

"_Marry me, Kirito."_

"_No."_

Asuna actually snorted at this exchange.

"_When we break out of this world," _Klein wrote, _"I'm taking you out for a drink."_

"_I'm underage!"_

Asuna kind of wanted to squeeze Kirito in a hug herself, but she kept this thought to herself. After thanking him for the information, she closed her menu and stood up with her hands on her hips.

"Come on, guys, it's time to wreck public property!"

* * *

Kirito closed his menu with a smile. He was glad to have helped Asuna and the others.

But on the other hand, this meant that there were new developments to think of. Asuna had not mentioned it directly, but by reading between the lines, Kirito inferred that someone had deliberately blocked the entrance for them. This _someone _could only have been a person with a grudge against Kirito – otherwise, there was no reason for someone to want to delay the progress of three frontliners.

This thought made him feel both nervous and extremely guilty. Asuna had put herself in danger for his sake. He wished he could persuade her to stop what she was doing, but he knew how stubborn she was.

There was only one thing he could do from here. After waiting a few minutes, Kirito sent a message to Asuna asking if she had managed to escape. She said yes.

Okay, thought Kirito. This meant two things:

Firstly, that the saboteur was _not _Kayaba Akihiko. This had to be a regular player, someone who was not aware of every single subtle detail of how the SAO world worked.

Secondly, if it was not Kayaba, it had to follow that this person was someone who had the ability to physically tail Asuna through the 75th floor. That had to mean it was someone capable of fighting on the frontlines. His (it had to be a he since Asuna was the only female frontliner) intention was probably not to outright _harm _Asuna but simply to keep her from making any progress.

With this logic, the most likely culprit was someone from the Knights of Blood. Was it Heathcliff? No, Heathcliff would not have resorted to such a sly and convoluted plan – it would have been far easier and more practical for him to have forbid Asuna from going out in the first place. That had been well within his power. Besides, that just wasn't his style.

"Having fun, Kirito?"

Kirito almost jumped. He had been so deep in thought, he hadn't noticed that someone had entered the basement. Yet there he was, sneering openly at him through the bars.

"Kuradeel," Kirito said, frowning.

"Hmph, I don't understand why a dead man like you has so much spirit left in him," Kuradeel said. Kirito could practically feel the disdain dripping from his voice.

"I know it was you who tried to block my friends." Kirito's hand clenched by his side. "Leave them out of it."

Kuradeel simply laughed. "Aren't you a clever little boy? I shouldn't have put it past you to work that out."

… He wasn't even denying it!

"Why are you doing this?" Kirito demanded. "If it's out of jealousy, then-"

"_Jealousy_?! Don't be ridiculous!" Kuradeel roared. "I would never be jealous of you."

Well, okay.

Whatever he said.

Kirito continued to glare icily at Kuradeel.

"You think you're so strong simply because you _beat _me once. But look at you, you're just a criminal!" Kuradeel pointed his finger at Kirito, and for the first time, it occurred to Kirito that Kuradeel actually genuinely believed what he said.

In Kuradeel's mind, Kirito had stolen Asuna away from him. He was a thief, perhaps worse. So when Kirito's icon turned red, Kuradeel had immediately latched onto the implications. Without that assurance, he would not have had the courage to speak down to Kirito like this.

"Are you done yet?" Kirito asked. There was no point in trying to get information out of this man because it simply did not exist.

"I cannot _wait _for you to die in pain."

"Pity, then." Kirito smiled unassumingly. "How you don't feel pain or anything in SAO."

Kuradeel's face made several rather unhealthy-looking contortions. "You're going to _die_! You're going to die die die _die DIE!_"

With that, he stormed off, the sound of his heavy footsteps crashing against the stone floor. Kirito clamped his mouth shut and looked down, frowning.

He knew that Kuradeel was not the final boss here, but…

_Asuna, be careful._

* * *

The coliseum in Collinia was so large it took up almost a quarter of the living area on the 75th floor. After their claustrophobic experience in the cave, Asuna and the others were quite happy to be out in the wide and spacious open-air coliseum. Since there was no event happening at the coliseum that day, only NPCs populated the area, mostly milling around in the stands.

They were looking around for an NPC with a golden question mark above his head. Having the item called Leon's Bread in Klein's inventory triggered the mark to appear. Simple stuff, really, as far as quests went.

Unfortunately, the first person they bumped into in Collinia was not Leon's father but another player.

"A-Asuna-sama!"

Asuna winced; it was Kuradeel. His eyes were wide – he looked more stunned than pleasantly surprised to see her. For some reason, this bothered Asuna.

"Oh, fancy seeing you here," she said, a little dully.

After a few moments, Kuradeel seemed to recover from his shock, as if it had been a physical blow to his stomach. Asuna really hoped he would not stick around and try to talk to her though she did not think she would be that lucky. When he had been her bodyguard, Kuradeel had tried his utmost best to suck up to her at any opportunity. To her surprise, however, Kuradeel backed off quickly, making some excuse for him to go.

He was probably busy himself.

Asuna paid no further thought to it.

After about fifteen minutes of searching the coliseum, they found Leon's father in the dressing room. Despite supposedly possessing full Orichalcum equipment, he was only dressed in leather. Sometimes, NPCs just made no sense.

"You brought me Leon's Bread?" he said, when Klein presented the item to him. "Thank you very much!"

Was this the end of the quest? Asuna thought. No, it couldn't be. It was much too easy to end it just like that.

Her suspicions were proven exactly right.

Leon's father explained that his battle was starting soon and he wanted a good luck charm to help him with the fight. He said that the charm he wanted was a monster that wouldn't attack him.

Klein scratched his head and complained loudly at that. "Fetch quests! I hate fetch quests!"

"A tame monster?" Asuna said questioningly. "Where would we get one of those? Do you know, Agil?"

Agil rubbed his chin.

"Tame monsters… They're not items, exactly, but they're very rare."

Asuna had heard of some players being able to tame beasts, but she did not know any of them personally.

She sighed. It was time to go on a wild goose chase…

* * *

It was a lot more troublesome to be trapped inside a cell than it seemed. The one thing Kirito could not handle was the excessive boredom. After fighting for his life every day for the past two years, languishing indoors was something that his mind found difficult to adjust to. He found himself fidgeting.

What to do? Asuna hadn't responded to his message about Kuradeel – she probably hadn't checked her messages yet. Kirito got to his feet and drew out his sword, mentally estimating the amount of room in the cell. There wasn't enough room to use his Sword Skills, but at least he could practice swinging his sword around. For a while, that kept him busy, though he kept his ears pricked in case anyone came. He was not trying to escape – he was simply preventing his technique from getting rusty. He did not want his swords taken away from him too.

One slash, a thrust, an uppercut. Quick parry. Kirito visualised a monster in front of him and acted accordingly. He was light on his toes and, in his mind, he could see the attacks coming straight for him. Duck. Side cut. Jump backwards. Thrust.

"That's very nice technique you have there."

Kirito spun around. _What?!_

The man had appeared out of nowhere. He was looking across the bars at Kirito, looking visibly impressed.

Kirito could have sworn he had seen this man before.

He was dressed in a white lab coat and his face was rather plain, even a little dour. He had the look of someone who had worked so hard his entire life he didn't know anything different. But as he looked at Kirito, he smiled in quiet satisfaction.

Kirito's sword slipped from his hand and landed with a harsh clang on the stone floor.

He could remember where he had seen this person before – it was in the newspapers and on the TVs. The man responsible for creating a deadly legacy.

"Kayaba Akihiko," Kirito breathed.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

"Do you mind if I talk to you for a while, Kirito?"

The creator of SAO continued to smile at Kirito with slightly watery grey eyes. He was, Kirito realised, a very skinny man. There was no malice in his smile, only a kind of weariness. His smile only made his gaunt face seem more hollow – had this man worked himself half to death?

There were so many questions running through Kirito's mind he had no idea where to begin. He could only stare at Kayaba with his mouth slightly ajar and his throat feeling as dry as a desert.

"Who? What? _Why?_" he heard himself croak out finally.

Kayaba might have been the most nondescript, unassuming person in the world to look at, but from simply looking at him, a sense of sheer terror flooded into Kirito's heart. He had felt this before – on the day of that fateful announcement. He even felt the same kind of abject disbelief. This couldn't be real.

This was the man who had murdered over four thousand people.

The smile dropped from Kayaba's face. "You're the first player I've appeared to like this," he said. He spoke quietly yet clearly, in the kind of voice that made Kirito want to hang on to every word he uttered. "I suppose you have a lot of questions."

He didn't know the half of it.

Kirito continued to shake his head weakly in disbelief. For a moment, his mind was blank, and then it started to work furiously.

Yes, he had known for a while that Kayaba had some kind of interest in him. He wouldn't have received that message from him otherwise. This shouldn't surprise him as much as it did. He needed to take this opportunity to _learn_…

His head pointed at the ground, Kirito asked his first question:

"Why did you kill all those people?"

His tone was very deliberately calm.

"Why do people die at all?" Kayaba asked back.

What was he trying to say, that he wasn't really that responsible for all the deaths that had occurred in this world? Kirito just didn't understand. And why wasn't there any anger in Kayaba, any part of his demeanour that suggested depravity? It would have been so much less confusing if he was anything like Kuradeel.

"Kirito," Kayaba said gravely. "Do you want to know why I chose you?"

Kirito did want to know, actually, but he kept his head down, frowning, and said nothing.

"The reason is because you have the highest stats out of any solo player," said Kayaba. "That's all."

Kirito had figured as much.

Blinking thoughtfully, Kayaba went on:

"I keep tabs on the strongest player. Of course, that's what any MMO player would do. But your survival instincts interested me, so that's why I gave you that Dual Sword ability. Do you like it?"

So, in a way, those rumours were right: he _had _been getting help from Kayaba. It frustrated him, actually. He thought he had gotten through the game through his own strength.

Kirito finally spoke up. "What's the reason for this?"

"Because I'm the final boss," Kayaba said smoothly.

A declaration like that was enough to make a chill go through any gamer's heart. This was the _creator _of the game, after all. He knew a thousand ways to kill a player in one hit.

Kayaba smiled.

"In the end, you and I will be the one to fight one another."

Kirito restrained his urge to gulp. He supposed to Kayaba, who was most assuredly not an A.I., it would be boring for him to take on a group of clearers who constantly switched – those kinds of fights were practical but repetitive and lacking in drama. It occurred to Kirito that Kayaba had a taste for melodrama.

"So this whole situation… you're testing me to see if I can take on a boss on my own?"

"That's right," said Kayaba, looking pleased by Kirito's response. "If you beat me, I'll return the world to normal. That's a promise."

"… I see." Kirito leaned his head back. This was all so much to take in at once.

… So there was a way out of this madness – _if _Kayaba kept his word.

Kayaba turned around. _What – he was leaving already? _Kirito almost called out to him when Kayaba spoke up first.

"Say, Kirito, how do you like it in this world?" This was a question he asked with quiet earnestness. Perhaps it was curiosity as a game developer that was behind it. "You'll never have this kind of power anywhere else." The smile faded once again from his face, replaced by nostalgia and the faintest twinges of wistfulness. "Ah, but you probably knew that already."

* * *

Asuna, Klein and Agil went down together to the first floor of Aincrad.

When the death game first started, a publication called MMO Today was in wide circulation, detailing survival tips and boss strategy guides. It was what most gamers would call a Walkthrough for the early floors and was compiled with the help of various beta testers. (Though Kirito had been a beta tester too, he was not involved in the making of the Walkthrough in any way.) The person who had published MMO Today was a mild-mannered man named Thinker, who had apparently been a journalist in real life. He was also the leader and creator of the Aincrad Liberation Force – otherwise known as The Army.

Today, The Army was the largest guild in SAO, made up of over a thousand players. Though it had started out as a clearing guild, this was no longer strictly the case, and most members joined simply out of a need for income. Their headquarters were located in the Black Iron Castle on the first floor of Aincrad, which was Asuna's current destination.

It was Agil who had suggested going down to the first floor to meet Thinker. "Let's face it," he said. "None of us want to pay money to an info dealer for the answer to a simple question." They had already used up a good deal of their spare col because of the furniture-breaking episode.

It was a good plan. If they couldn't meet Thinker, they could simply pick up old issues of MMO Today and read through those – there was a high probability that a feature article on Beast Tamers would have been written. It had, after all, been relevant in the early game.

Asuna, however, was nervous. Not only had she heard stories about The Army harassing other players, but she hadn't been to the first floor since the beginning of the game. Subconsciously, she had avoided going back to the place where that dreaded announcement had occurred and changed her life forever.

Klein seemed to notice her unease because he said, "Don't worry, Asuna. Starting city's the safest place in the game. You can take care of yourself, no problem."

Asuna smiled. Had Klein been Kuradeel or any one of her "bodyguards", he probably would have spouted the same tired lines about protecting her and she was glad he didn't. In SAO, power was decided by levels, not by gender or appearance. In spite of his broad stature and heavily muscled body, for instance, Agil actually had a lower strength stat than Asuna.

In a way, SAO was actually a fair place to be in. This was strange to think because of how the death penalty applied in this world, but in a twisted sense, that was fair too. The system didn't discriminate.

Asuna was just disappointed how few other players seemed to realise this.

"… Asuna! It's Asuna! The Flash!"

Asuna heard murmurs of adulation almost from the moment she stepped out of the teleport gate. Players on the street stopped whatever they were doing to point and gaze at her, as if she were some being from another galaxy.

Asuna just sighed.

"Asuna! You're Asuna, aren't you? Do you want me to show you around town?"

"How about having lunch with me?"

"We can go flower-picking if you like!" (_Um, seriously?_ thought Asuna.)

The starting city was populated by over a thousand players and was easily the most densely populated town in the game, so the problems Asuna faced with crowds was amplified here.

"Move along, move along!" said Agil and then, turning to face the crowd, he projected his best scary face. Being a tall, dark man with a bald head, he pulled it off well. The nervous crowd quickly thinned. "Heh, works every time."

Asuna sighed again. "I wish this wouldn't happen so much."

Until the day she had entered SAO, she had never been called beautiful by a man (except by Sugou – but he really, _really _didn't count), so this idea that she had become an idol in an MMO never ceased to be baffling to her. It wasn't that Asuna considered herself as ugly, but people really took things over-the-top here.

Klein smiled ruefully at her.

"Ah, well, you know how it is. There aren't that many girls in SAO and guys tend to be more forward online than they are in real life."

"And it's not like it's a totally bad thing," Agil added. "You've really come to your own here, Asuna. That's what people see in you."

"Thanks, guys," said Asuna with a small smile. She wondered if Agil was right – if she _had _come to her own in SAO. Would her younger self be able to recognise the swordswoman who she now was?

Asuna wasn't sure – it was like she had completely lost touch with her old identity. She didn't think she would ever forget the dark, brooding thoughts she had as she locked herself in her room and studied, but the memories were starting to become more and more distant. She was who she was.

"So we're here, right?" she said, looking up at the tall Black Iron Castle. In this case, the name was actually a pretty fair description of the building. Its dark, looming figure seemed to cast an ominous shadow over the town, as if it were the headquarters of some evil warlord.

The guards, however, refused to let them in.

"You have to pay the toll if you want to come in," one of them said, yawning and scratching the side of his cheek as he spoke.

"What a load of bull!" Klein exclaimed. "Tolls? Who died and made you boss?"

He made to pull out his katana even though he was in a safe zone. Asuna shook her head and placed a restraining hand in front of him.

"We're not here to make any trouble," she said. "We're just here to have a look at some of the copies of MMO Today. That's no problem, is it?"

"Well, actually, yeah it is," said the guard. "Commander Kibaou said not to distribute them to the public. You can't read it unless you're a member of The Army."

"That's ridiculous!" Klein roared.

"I think it's pretty clear what's going on here," said Agil. "Kibaou's an elitist."

An elitist. They were a pretty common sight in any online community, actually. It was probably worse in SAO because of the levelling system. Those who joined guilds and fought monsters looked down upon the players who refused to step out of the starting city, calling them noobs. The Army thought of themselves as elite because they were the first clearing guild, but it was the smaller ones that actually did all the heavy lifting. Maybe the real elitists were the Knights of Blood or solo players like Kirito. It was a hard call to make. But The Army members were undoubtedly the biggest jerks about it, if only because as a large group their voices were heard the loudest.

"Let's not waste any more time with these guys," Asuna said exasperatedly. "Come on, let's go."

So they went. But it wasn't the last they would see of The Army.

* * *

The young girl sat with her hands on her knees, her cheeks puffed up in fury and her head turned to the side. The man leaned forward, patting the girl on the head. He was not a particularly tall man or even overly-threatening to look at, though he had the scrunched up, scowling demeanour of someone who was used to having his way. He had a face that was so used to frowning that when he smiled, as he did now, the effect was awkward, as if he was just smiling just to prove that he could.

"Silica-chan," the man said, attempting to speak softly. It did not come naturally to him, but he was trying. "Don't be mad, Silica-chan. I mean, it's no big deal."

"You're a meanie," huffed thirteen-year-old Silica. Her girlish pigtails shook as she tossed her head in anger. "A big fat meanie, Kibaou-san!"

If anyone besides a thirteen-year-old girl had uttered these words to him, he probably would have drawn his sword in an instant. As it was, Kibaou did his best to calm the girl down.

"Just think of it as transaction. If you do what I say, you'll get your little friend back. Surely that's fine, Silica-chan?"

"No, it's not!" Silica insisted stubbornly. "Give back Pina, Kibaou-san! Eat poop!"

Okay, that would have ticked anyone off. "Now you listen to me-" Kibaou began, the corners of his lips twitching with effort.

"Lalalalala! I'm not listening to you!" Silica covered her ears.

It was fortunate for Kibaou that none of the other guild members were watching this exchange. Silica was sitting on a chair in Kibaou's living quarters in the Black Iron Castle and Kibaou was standing up and talking down to her. He could not help but be frustrated by Silica's defiant eyes.

"Gah, you're stupid," said Kibaou sourly. He couldn't hold it in any longer.

"And so are you," Silica retorted. "Let Pina go!"

"Enough with the dumb dragon." Kibaou rolled his eyes. "It's just a monster. You can just get a new one, can't you?"

"You don't understand what it means to have friends, Kibaou-san. A friend who stands by your side and helps you out. Who loves you, who _understands _you, who always stays by your-"

"Okay, okay," said Kibaou. "Enough with the sappy speeches. Look, like I told you, you'll get your Pina back. You just have to do what I want. Otherwise, the dragon's toast."

Silica was quiet for a moment.

"Well?" Kibaou pressed her.

"What is it?" Silica asked, glaring up at him. "What do you want?"

Kibaou sighed in relief. _Finally _she was listening to him.

"Look, all you have to do is say yes and let me share your inventory for a bit."

"Huh? To what?"

"Marry me," said Kibaou.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: **Yulier is now male in this story because I feel that's more realistic for the setting. I am trying to cut down on the side character females where I can so that the main girls feel like genuine exceptions to the rule in this world.

**Chapter 7**

The second time Kirito met Kayaba was no less sudden than the first time. But it was somehow less surprising for him, to look up and see Kayaba simply standing there in front of him, as if he had been there all along. This time, he appeared inside Kirito's cell, within two arm lengths from where Kirito was sitting. Kirito shifted restlessly for a moment, but he did not move from where he sat, with his back pressed up against the wall.

"Are you some kind of hologram?" was the first thing Kirito asked.

"Why do you ask that?" asked Kayaba.

"If you were an actual player avatar, you'd be constrained by the game's physics, wouldn't you…?"

It was probably the closest thing one could find to a "ghost" in the SAO world. Judging by how Kayaba blinked at what Kirito said, he had guessed correctly.

So while he was talking to a being that certainly possessed Kayaba's mind and appearance, Kayaba's true consciousness was somewhere else entirely. Perhaps he was listening to this conversation, wherever he was. In this world, he was truly like a god.

Kayaba smiled, dusted his lab coat and sat down on the floor in front of Kirito. "It's been a while since I've talked to someone like you," he professed. "Sometimes, I suppose I get sick of pretending."

Kirito wasn't sure what to make of this. "I guess you wouldn't have many people to talk to if all you're doing is just watching over the world."

He wondered if his sword would work on Kayaba. No, that was a stupid idea.

"You're being surprisingly calm," Kayaba noted.

Kayaba evidently had no way of reading people's minds, then, of knowing their deepest thoughts. Because inside, Kirito was the furthest thing from calm.

"I don't understand you," Kirito said bluntly. "Don't you have better things to do than talk to someone like me?"

He meant it, he realised, in both a resentful and in an admiring way. Before the death game started and SAO was still in its beta stages, Kirito would have said, without any irony at all, that Kayaba Akihiko was his hero.

And he was still a genius, no matter what transpired in this game.

"Well, to be honest," said Kayaba. "No, I don't really have anything better to do."

They were silent, neither of them looking directly at the other. Then Kayaba said:

"So how does SAO compare to other MMORPGs? I've assumed you've played many of them."

Kirito thought for a moment. There was no harm in telling the truth. "It was by far the best," he admitted. "I've always wondered how one person could make a world so, well, _detailed_."

"It was a long haul," answered Kayaba. "Many years – I've almost lost track of it now. The person who I was when I started and the person who I am now are two completely different people."

"So it was some kind of challenge for you?"

"Not really a change… more like escapism, I suppose?"

Kirito thought about that. "I think I get it," he said finally. You couldn't feel free in a video game made by someone with a restrictive mind. It couldn't be done. And Kirito had always certainly felt free in SAO, death penalties or not.

"I would have liked a job system, though," he said.

Kayaba laughed. "I don't think I'll be adding any expansion pack to this game. Besides, don't you think a job system would have made the fighting seem less real somehow?"

"Real was what you were going for?"

"I suppose I was. I don't know what I was thinking, really – those all-nighters have a way of getting to you."

Kirito almost smiled. He actually really liked the battle system in SAO. It was definitely linear and unbalanced by focusing entirely on hand-to-hand combat, but victory felt like something earned by your own hand. You put your life on the line every time you played.

_I feel more alive in SAO than I do in the real world. _Kirito almost opened his mouth and admitted that. SAO was more real than reality. Unless you played it yourself, it was not something you could begin to understand. In the floating tower of Aincrad, Kayaba had somehow managed to capture a kind of beauty that surpassed photographic detail – something that could only exist in the imagination but just a little bit too far out of reach in the mind's eye. It was only when you actually stood in Aincrad itself and watched the wind rustle against endless blades of grass that you would think – _yes_, _this is something beyond a fantasy._

The death game only reaffirmed just how real it was.

"Oh yes, you get it, don't you?" Kayaba said with a chuckle. "Better than I do, I suppose."

But to that, Kirito said nothing. At length, Kayaba pressed a button on his menu and was gone again.

* * *

There are some things that one can only peg down as a happy coincidence – but for Asuna's party, it wasn't so much happy as it was a little bizarre.

It happened when they were just about to enter the teleport gate in the middle of town. Asuna stopped momentarily at a nearby vendor to buy fruit when she heard two men talking to each other, with the evident tone of voice that they were discussing gossip.

"Can't believe Silica the Beast Tamer's marrying Kibaou…"

Asuna immediately swung around. "Who's Silica the Beast Tamer?" she asked.

The two men jumped in their alarm at being addressed so suddenly. One of them was a squat yet smiling-faced while the other was taller, thinner and dressed in purple armour. _Almost like a crossdresser, _was Asuna's first impression.

Smiling nervously, the two men explained just who Silica was.

So this was it, Asuna thought. She had found the person she was looking for. So she had a connection to Kibaou from The Army. Asuna quickly signalled over to Klein and Agil.

"So it looks like the person we're looking for is getting married to Kibaou," Asuna uttered seriously.

"Married, huh?" Klein scratched his chin. "I wish someone would marry me in SAO."

Succeeding in getting married in SAO was like a sign of status. Not that many people managed to do it. "Well, you only live once," Klein said cheerfully. "You know how you die when you get killed in SAO?"

"No shit, Sherlock," said Agil.

"Personally, I can't help but think that there's some kind of conspiracy going on," said Asuna. "But that could just be me…"

"No, I can see it, too," said Agil. "A thirteen-year-old Beast Tamer and a commander from The Army? She's definitely got something Kibaou needs. Either that or she's attracted to his money."

"Where's Thinker been these days?" asked Klein. "All we're hearing is Kibaou this, Kibaou that."

It was all very mysterious. Asuna was not sure if she wanted to get involved in any messy guild politics. Her own guild was bad enough.

"Excuse me! Excuse me!"

Asuna looked up to see a silver-haired man running towards them down the street. Asuna blinked. The man stopped in front of them, panting.

He was tall and stood up straight with his mouth grim and stoic. He was wearing the standard bulky Army uniform though without the helmet, revealing rich silver locks that looked as smooth-flowing as water.

"Who are you?" Asuna asked levelly.

"Forgive me for my impudence," said the silver-haired man, panting. "I'd heard there were three frontliners down in the Town of Beginnings, so I rushed down to find you, hoping you hadn't gone yet."

"And your name is…?"

"Yulier. I belong to the Aincrad Liberation Force." He bowed, arms held rigidly by his side.

So, this person was from The Army. It was obvious, just from the uniform. Asuna spoke up. "So? What was it that you needed us for?"

Yulier straightened up and looked to his left and right. The two men from earlier were still peering up curiously at them, and with a sigh, Yulier turned back to Asuna.

"I think it's best if we discussed this indoors."

It was something to do with The Army. Asuna glanced towards Klein and Agil, who both nodded at her. Asuna faced Yulier.

"Lead the way," she said.

* * *

The story that Yulier told them was one they had mostly pieced together on their own. Kibaou had not always been such a dominant figure in The Army – formerly a sub-leader, he had wrestled power from Thinker after The Army became so large and difficult to handle that the hierarchy of control was no longer clear.

"Then?" Asuna asked, peering across at Yulier from where he sat at the table. (It would probably have been dusty if this was real life, but furniture never got dirty in SAO.) The bar they had entered was mostly empty – the owner had his back to them, wiping dirty dishes. He seemed to be rather busy. "What happened to Thinker?" Asuna pressed Yulier.

"That's the thing," said Yulier, frowning. The concern on his face was palpable. "No one really knows. I have my suspicions, but…" He took a breath. "And then there's this upcoming marriage between Kibaou and Silica."

"So what can you tell us about that?" Agil asked. "We need to talk to that girl."

"It appears the girl got her hands on a very rare item. Kibaou wants to marry her for her inventory but not only that, I think he wants to solidify his position by being married. That girl, too… She's very famous in the mid-levels because of her Beast Tamer skills. I guess he wants a share of that fame."

"Is she cute?" asked Klein.

Asuna elbowed him. "Not the time!" Klein grinned sheepishly at her. Asuna rolled her eyes and sighed; she couldn't stay mad at him.

"So what are we gonna do?" Agil asked Asuna and Klein. He stroked his chin. "Guess we could bust up that sham of a wedding."

"I don't know," said Asuna, frowning. "Getting involved in that kind of thing is pointless when we're just after Silica."

"Aww, come on," said Klein. "Where's your romantic side, Asuna?"

Asuna rolled her eyes. Contrary to popular belief, she did have a romantic side – but clearing the game came before emotional gratification. It was common sense to her.

"Kibaou is not the kind of person that would let you talk to something he claims as his own," Yulier said seriously. "So I beg you, please help us!" He bowed again, fervently.

Asuna considered. "Well, we can't PvP in a safe zone, so I don't see how we could help, exactly."

"Is your guild leader aware of this situation?"

He was talking about Heathcliff. Sometimes, people got nervous about referring to him directly by name. "He probably knows," Asuna admitted. "He knows everything, really. But he's not really interested in anything besides clearing."

Yulier curled his lip down in distaste. He did not seem to be particularly angered by what Asuna said, but rather he was brooding and these thoughts had been ongoing for the entire conversation so far. That much was obvious. Sometimes, his emotions spilled onto his face, righteous anger that was still not entirely pretty to behold.

"I'd draw my blade on him myself, but my level is lower than his. I just want to know where Thinker is. We started out in this world as partners and by damn we'll get out of it together."

"So you want us to threaten Kibaou?" Agil asked. "Roughen him up for a bit?"

"I just want to know where Thinker is," Yulier repeated, bowing his head. His teeth were clenched.

At that moment, the barman came over to them, setting a tray on the table. "Drinks," he said gruffly.

"Huh?" said Klein confusedly. "But we didn't order anything."

"You guys looked thirsty," said the barman with a shrug. He turned away, busying himself with the rag and the dirty dishes once more.

Asuna picked up the mug of coffee and held it to her lips. Then she froze. The texture of the mug was somehow rather strange. She peered down at it.

There was a crystal embedded on the side of the handle, where she had picked it up.

A teleport crystal…!

It activated almost immediately.

"Guys, look ou-!"

But she could say no more. Around her, the lights of the little poky bar faded away into nonexistence, replaced by the sickly sheen of ill-lit candles. Gone was the cosmopolitan feel of the Town of Beginnings. This was a quiet place, where the sounds of water dripping could be heard a mile away. The ceiling was high, held up by stone pillars, and the ground beneath her feet was equally cold and hard.

A dungeon.

Asuna let out a small yelp when lights flashed beside her and Klein, Agil and Yulier appeared beside her, looking just as disoriented as Asuna felt.

"What just happened?" Klein said groggily.

"That barman…" murmured Yulier. "He was one of Kibaou's spies. He's probably been trailing me… I'm so sorry."

Agil patted him on the back. "It's okay, you didn't know."

As he continued to pat the downcast Yulier, his eyes went up to meet Klein and Asuna's, calmly conveying his thoughts. This was not a good situation. The barman had planted corridor crystals in their cups and it had sent them deep within a dungeon. It was called Portal PK. They didn't know what dungeon it was, but it could be a high-level one and they had no way of knowing until they ran into monsters.

Asuna quickly opened up her menu, checking for teleport crystals. As she did, she noticed an unread message from Kirito, dated from several hours ago. She could not send any messages to him in a dungeon, but she quickly clicked on his message to read anyway.

"_Be careful of Kuradeel. He was the one who sabotaged your quest."_

Asuna paused. It threw new light on their situation.

Was it Kibaou's spy or Kuradeel who had sent them down here? She had no way of knowing.

Well, it wasn't important for now. The important thing was to get out of the dungeon.

"A-Asuna." Klein spoke up behind her.

"What is it?" Asuna grunted, flicking through to her item menu. Good, she still had some teleport crystals.

"_Asuna_," Klein said more urgently. And then he tapped her on the shoulder. "Look behind you."

So she did.

It was huge. Totally dark and faceless – a skeleton, dressed in robes blacker than Kirito's hair and trademark coat. But the thing that was most noticeable about it, just from a glance, was the wicked sharp scythe it was carrying. The blade alone seemed bigger than the entire length of Agil's body.

The Fatal Scythe – was the name that was printed next to its cursor. Judging by its size and its absolutely monstrous health bar, it was very obviously a boss.

"Ah, crap," was all Asuna had to say to that.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Asuna had lived through many boss fights before, but the terror of coming face-to-face with a powerful boss was a feeling that would never leave her. Her first impulse was always to run and then, _maybe_, to draw her sword and make a stand. She needed to observe its movements carefully first. You couldn't just dive into a boss fight – you'd get hit straight away. Asuna had seen enough death on the battlefield to wonder when she would be next.

It only took her one split second for the image of the boss to burn itself into her mind permanently. It hadn't yet begun to move, but it would soon.

She memorised the size of its HP bar immediately – it had just as much health as The Gleam Eyes, the boss on 74th floor.

"Yulier-san!" Asuna spun around urgently. Yulier was standing next to Agil, his eyes wide as saucers and his arms frozen by his side. He was only level 62. He'd get OHKO'ed at this rate and that would be that.

He would be dead.

Asuna frantically took out the teleport crystal and clenched it in her shaking hand. _"Take it!" _she cried, her voice coming out harsher than she intended. Yulier barely reacted to that at all, but Asuna dumped the crystal in the silver-haired man's hand. "Take the crystal and use it. We'll distract the boss for you!"

Yulier began. "I…!"

The ground started to shake beneath them. Yulier stopped speaking at once because of the noise. It wasn't just the rumbling that was loud – there was also the sound of heavy footsteps and breathing. Only one thing that it could be.

"Holy crap," Klein breathed.

On the other end of the corridor, at least twenty Queer Rats came rushing on all fours towards them. They weren't just your regular rodents – if they stood up on their hairy grey hind legs, they were easily as big as Asuna was, perhaps even bigger. Their huge red eyes boggled, almost popping out of their sockets. They were all snarling, baring yellowed teeth that were sharper than any of Lizbeth's swords.

They were surrounded. Front and back. There was nowhere to run.

No time to use any teleport crystals. The lag time was seconds too long – they'd get hit and the crystal would be rendered useless. Panic and they'd all just die unceremoniously.

"Let's take the rats! Run!" Agil roared. He whipped out his battleaxe from his inventory as he spoke. He ran forward towards the Queer Rats and swung his weapon heavily, like a whirlwind of death.

If they were going to take one option, it would have to be the pack of monsters over the boss. Asuna bent her knees and with one deft motion, she drew her sword out from scabbard and impaled a rat in front of her.

Battojutsu – the art of drawing a sword and slashing with the same motion. Asuna was a master at it.

"This way!" she cried out, leaving herself no time to proud of her own skills. "Come on!"

Klein grabbed hold of Yulier's arm and yanked him to ground, narrowly dodging the boss as it swung its scythe. It missed them by a hair. "Klein, are you all ri-!" Asuna began, as Klein drew his katana and stabbed one of the rats in front of him. He gritted his teeth and pushed the sword in deeper.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he grunted as the monster vanished in a flurry of crystal shards.

Asuna turned back to the enemies in front of her. She stabbed one right through, then another, chopping and changing and avoiding their fangs by jumping back lightly on her toes. Judging by how quickly they fell, they were probably monsters that belonged in a Level 60 dungeon or so. It took about three solid hits with her rapier before they died.

The real problem was the boss. It looked like it was still targeting Yulier and Klein judging by how close it hovered around them. Again, it raised its scythe. This it did slowly, but on the moment it swang the blade its speed was a blur. "Out of the way!" Asuna cried, launching herself towards the boss. No time to think. She had to distract it.

She ducked and rolled out of the way as the scythe's blade came her way. Her heart was pumping in her mouth – it was like her body was on autopilot. Anticipate the next strike…

Suddenly, Asuna felt a weight against her leg. Turning to look down, she almost screamed but her voice was clogged against her throat. A rat had latched itself on her leg and was steadily chewing away at her, digging its teeth into the side of her.

It was enough of a distraction for Asuna to not dodge the boss's attack like she was supposed to.

As the scythe flashed out and hit her straight on, Asuna's heart jolted, even though she felt no pain. Before her eyes, she could see her health bar flashing.

Half her health bar… gone…

Asuna's eyes flashed with grim fury.

Firmly, she stabbed the rat on her leg until it was dead, and then Asuna quickly began to back away, pressing her back against the side wall. On reflex, her hands began opening up her menu for a potion.

"You need help there?" asked Agil, coming up beside her. He was already panting slightly. A quarter of his HP was gone, too. Still, he kept on swinging his axe. "I'll take them while you recover."

Asuna knew he would be true to his word. Stepping back a little further, she removed herself from the combat and waited until her HP bar finished recovering. She had a small amount of time. She needed to use it to evaluate how the scene was going.

Even from a distance, it looked absolutely chaotic. Klein and Agil had pressed up against each other back-to-back, taking down any rats that came their way. Yulier had taken out his whip and was hurling each monster in the direction of the two men, though he constantly paused so that he could run out of the range of The Fatal Scythe. As for the boss itself, it only sidled up slowly towards the players, though it was much, much faster than it chose to move. Asuna knew that from experience. The boss was using its slowness to let that sense of death creep up on you. She shivered – it definitely worked.

She had three-quarters of HP left. Good enough. Asuna straightened up and headed straight for the boss. She had figured out enough of its movements to try and combat it for a while.

Where a monster moved and decided to attack from was decided by its algorithms. A player watching carefully would be able to predict its movements after a while – after all, monsters were only programmed entities. The problem with this monster was that it could move so quickly that even if she could predict where it would go, it would still beat her in the long run. She had no hope but to distract it until her friends could get away.

With a careful, measured stride, she stepped forward and thrust her blade at The Fatal Scythe, backing away just as her rapier lightly grazed it. As she expected it swung its scythe all around itself very suddenly. Had she attacked with her entire body weight, she would not have been able to dodge the counterattack.

But the compromise in damage was severe. She had barely grazed its HP bar. Meanwhile, she had only dodged the monster's attack by less than an inch herself – she had felt the wind pressure against her chest plate. She could not keep up her level of speed forever. Already, her legs were starting to feel a little sluggish from so much acceleration.

_Urk._

Asuna forced herself to take a deep breath and evaluated the situation once more. What would Kirito have done? What she would have given for his dual swords!

"_Calm down, Asuna," _she could imagine Kirito telling her soothingly. _"Look for weaknesses. Fight smartly."_

Kirito could be such a hypocrite sometimes, Asuna thought. He'd tell her to fight without putting herself in danger and then he'd go off and use a berserker style of fighting himself. Perhaps it was best not to listen to him.

But, because she had thought of him, she felt serene, as she always did when he came into her thoughts. She could anticipate The Fatal Scythe's blows better. Timing her backward jump with perfect precision, she landed back on the stone ground on her two legs and her left hand. The other hand was readying the stance of one of her Sword Skills.

"Star Splash!" she yelled out as she sprang forward in the air and launched the eight-hit combo. Her rapier moved like a blur, hitting the boss several times. To her satisfaction, its HP bar visibly lowered. There was still so much damage she had to inflict, though…

She was still in the air when the monster swung its scythe and hit her – not with the blade, because she had already anticipated that – but with the butt end of the scythe. Asuna gasped and was knocked backwards, crashing resoundingly against the wall.

_Damn_!

To her alarm, she realised the attack had taken more damage from her than The Fatal Scythe's previous strike. Her HP had actually gone into the red zone from this.

The monster floated towards her and Asuna gasped and started to crawl away. She needed more speed! Her Emergency Recover skill was already working on healing her depleted health bar, but it wasn't fast enough to let her recover in time.

As The Fatal Scythe raised its weapon one last time, a whip cracked and furled itself around the handle.

Asuna's eyes widened.

"Yulier-san!" she gasped.

Yulier grimaced as he pulled against his whip, struggling to keep his footing. "You didn't leave me," he said. "So I won't leave you."

"No, Yulier-san!" Asuna insisted. "You have to run now! You shouldn't…!"

But it was too late. The boss pulled on the scythe and Yulier was dragged up with him. In his panic, Yulier let go of his whip, but by then the boss had already caught up to him.

Asuna climbed to her feet.

_More speed!_

"Hrrrnnnngggghh!" she grunted. One foot landed firmly on the ground and from there she took off in a sprint. "Hyaaaaaa!"

At first, she thought she wouldn't make it, so she held her rapier forward, praying: _oh please please please…!_

All she could see was the glinting blade of that scythe descending. It made a whooshing sound, so forceful it was like it was breaking apart the atoms in the air.

And then-

_Clang!_

Just in time, the steel of her rapier hit the scythe. It was just enough to delay the boss for a moment. Asuna ducked and shoved Yulier out of the way. Then she leaped back and held herself in fencing stance, one hand by her side and the other pointing her sword towards the floor. She was readying herself for another Sword Skill.

Meanwhile, Agil and Klein had finished off the Queer Rats. "Hang on, Asuna!" Klein cried out. "We're coming!" She heard pounding footsteps to her right.

"Quickly!" she insisted. "Use the teleport crystal! You two and Yulier-san have to go! I'll take on this boss and buy you time!"

She had finally figured this monster out. While she would have liked to congratulate herself for this, she almost wished she didn't know. It seemed like this was actually a harder boss than The Gleam Eyes. She could feel the adrenaline inside of her giving way to sheer exhaustion now – she was approaching her limit.

If she got hit now, even at full health, she might not survive. Even now, her HP bar had only recovered into the yellow because of her Emergency Healing. She was guaranteed to lose.

_I guess I don't have it in me to solo bosses_, Asuna thought with a sad smile, though she held her ground stubbornly.

When she noticed the flash of the teleport crystal taking effect, only then did she feel at ease. This was finally it. She had come towards the end.

That was when her knees buckled out and with a pained gasp, she found herself falling.

_No! _

Warm arms surrounded her, holding her steady. "Whoa, hang in there!" She blinked, peering into Agil's reliable face. "Don't bite off more than you can chew!"

Asuna groaned slightly. She felt so, so light-headed. Somewhere to her right, she could see Klein exchanging blows with The Fatal Scythe. Still holding her steady, Agil took out a potion from his inventory and poured its contents into Asuna's mouth.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Asuna said, a little shakily. Then, gritting her teeth, she sat up. "I thought you were supposed to teleport out!"

"And leave you here alone?" Agil asked. "That's not what party members do. Yulier's safe now, so don't worry."

Asuna wanted to feel disappointed that Agil had not done as she had asked, but, truth be told, her relief took up too much of her heart.

One thing was certain: they couldn't leave Kirito to fight the Level 75 boss on his own. Not after this experience; it was just too lonely and scary.

"I'm okay," Asuna declared, climbing to her feet. She readied her rapier. "Come on, let's beat this boss together!"

"So? Any strategy?" Klein called out. He was grunting as he blocked the boss's scythe with his katana.

"We'll keep switching," said Asuna firmly. "I'll distract it and run out of its range while you guys attack it from behind."

Out of the three of them, she had the highest speed stat and therefore the highest evasion rate. Klein was the all-rounder, so he could attack from any angle, while Agil could catch the monster off-guard with his heavy axe strikes.

"Ready, guys?" Asuna said quietly, readying her Sword Skill stance.

"On your count," said Klein.

Asuna closed her eyes for a moment, preparing herself mentally for the manoeuvres she was about to attempt. Firmly, her eyes snapped open.

"Go!"

* * *

**Author's note: **It's mentioned in canon that The Fatal Scythe is about as powerful as a Level 90-something boss. For this story, I nerfed its strength, so it's about as strong as The Gleam Eyes (or perhaps a little stronger). It's somewhere between Level 74 and Level 75.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

Yulier shook his head slowly, feeling mildly disorientated. He squinted, blinded somewhat by the bright sun. He was free…!

And yet his mind continually remained in that dungeon where he had almost lost his life. The three frontliners were probably still fighting for their lives. Not to mention that Yulier had suspected right from the beginning that Thinker was probably down there too.

There was a bonus dungeon underneath the Black Iron Castle that had only been unlocked recently. It was, however, a very difficult dungeon and Yulier had never been inside it before. He had heard Kibaou had tried to clear it, but the monsters were too much trouble and he and his backup force teleported out in a hurry. That was an incident that had pushed The Army into debt, and added that to how Kibaou had indirectly caused the death of Cobert against the Level 74 boss, his future as a commander was not looking bright. Thinker had approached him, wanting to privately reason him out of his position. But Thinker had never returned, even though his name was still on the Monument of Life. He was no doubt trapped, unable to return to the surface.

Despite his loud-mouthed and brusque nature, Kibaou was more cunning than he seemed.

Yulier frowned. He had been teleported outside the Black Iron Castle, where Kibaou probably was. After a moment of pause, Yulier swung around and entered the castle once again.

This time, not the dungeon. He climbed up the steps, hardly pausing to salute to the other Army members as he went up.

"Yulier-san?"

Yulier turned at the sound of his name being called out. Silica stood at the entrance of Kibaou's living quarters, waving. Yulier stared. Silica was dressed in a lacy white wedding dress.

"Silica? Has the wedding already happened?"

Silica wrinkled her nose at the mention of the word 'wedding'. "No," she said, "but Kibaou-san's a real creep, wanting me to try this on. Ugh! I don't want to marry him!"

Yulier nodded sympathetically.

Silica grinned and placed her hands on her hips, not looking very much at all like a shy and demure bride. "Don't worry, Yulier-san! Kibaou-san's not here right now. I sent him off somewhere."

"Where?" Yulier asked, puzzled.

"To find the Potion of Invulnerability, of course!" Silica's eyes lit up mischievously at her own cleverness. "He thinks I found their location, that's why he wants to marry me so I can't hide my inventory from him. But the truth is, it wasn't me that found it, it was Pina!"

The Potion of Invulnerability was a very rare item indeed – it gave you thirty seconds of immunity to any kind of damage, though the game didn't let you hold more than one in your inventory at a time. No doubt Kibaou wanted it because it could let him justify his frontlining campaign. If he was the only one who knew how to find it, then nobody could dare to overthrow him.

"He's going to be mad at you when he comes back," Yulier said, looking uneasy.

"It doesn't matter if Kibaou-san is mad or not," Silica said defiantly. "It's not him I want to marry. Ha! If I had a choice, I'd marry Kirito-sa-!" She stopped suddenly, blushing furiously.

Kirito? The name vaguely rang a bell. "The Beater…?"

"Don't call him a Beater! He's a nice person! He was my big brother for a day!"

"People don't generally marry their brothers…" said Yulier. Still, he smiled, glad that Silica still had her spirit about her.

Because, all things considered, it certainly couldn't last…

* * *

They had run out of potions.

Klein glanced sharply towards his friends, gauging their HP bars. For now, they were okay, but if they took any more hits, they wouldn't be able to recover.

"This guy's harder than he looks…!"

And the worst part of it was that the boss still had a quarter of its HP left. Somehow, over the course of the battle, their advantage had gradually turned right around. Klein couldn't say he hadn't seen this coming, though. They hadn't prepared the right items to fight a boss with.

"Hmph!" said Asuna beside him. "We can't just quit here…!"

Klein agreed. If they couldn't handle this boss, then they wouldn't be able to look Kirito in the face after this. It was as simple as that.

"But, you know, Asuna," said Klein, as he clenched his grip on his sword. "In case we die here, can I just say I always thought you were pretty?"

"Idiot! We're not going to die here!"

"I'm just glad Kirito's not here… he probably would've killed me for that."

"Think about what else is trying to kill you!"

Klein just chuckled. The boss was circling around them and Klein realised this – _he was having fun_.

"It's coming!" Agil said loudly as the monster swooped down on them.

Klein and Asuna dived quickly out of the way, while Agil held his axe out and blocked the scythe with it. He could only hold it off for a split second. Klein dashed around Agil. "Sonic Thrust!" The Sword Skill activated and Klein's sword slashed through The Fatal Scythe as he passed by. Asuna performed the same motion with her Linear ability.

The boss was in critical condition now. Klein turned his head in anticipation. Agil readied his axe. "Whirlwi-!"

But the boss had other plans. Suddenly and viciously, it swung its scythe in a 360 degree motion, catching all three players with the blade. They were all knocked back several metres – their HP rapidly diminished.

"Shit!" yelled Klein. His HP wasn't even in the double digits anymore. His HP bar flashed red, a clear sign of danger. He backed away. "Damn it, we were so close…!"

It was the first time a sense of panic truly descended on him. This wasn't good at all. Klein cringed, unsure of whether to move forward or back. He could see the same hesitation on Agil's face.

Asuna darted forward.

"Asuna, stop!" Klein exclaimed, but Asuna appeared either not to have heard or she simply wasn't listening.

With almost superhuman speed, she dodged the scythe and then – _oh god, _Klein's heart almost gave out when he saw it – she _jumped onto the handle of the blade_. It was a big handle and Asuna had a high acrobatics level but how did she manage to keep her footing?

"I won't give up!" she yelled as she launched the fastest volley of rapier thrusts she had ever attempted in her life. "I won't give up!"

* * *

Kirito was alone. Now that Kayaba was gone, all he could do was wait.

_Asuna_, he found himself thinking, visualising the face of the girl in his mind. He wondered if she was okay.

He hadn't heard from her lately. Actually, there was a lot he wanted to tell her…

* * *

Asuna was going to _die _at this rate.

"Asuna, get down from there!" Klein yelled as he watched Asuna dangle precariously. The monster was probably going to shake her off within seconds, and if she hit the ground, the remainder of her HP would go. She was too high up not to take any damage, no matter what happened.

But Asuna didn't get down and she didn't stop for pause, either.

From the moment when she jumped onto the handle of the scythe and started attacking furiously to the moment when the boss savagely shook her off and let her crash to the ground was probably a span of about three seconds. Asuna seemed so small and delicate as she fell because the boss was so much bigger than her – she was nothing but a speck compared to it.

Klein and Agil didn't even glance at each other to know what they had to do.

The boss let out an inhuman hiss when Agil hacked at it with his axe. As for Klein, he sheathed his sword. There was simply something he needed to do first. When Asuna fell, he stretched out his arms and dived as far as he could go.

For a moment, it seemed like time froze into separate frames as he caught Asuna. He could no longer hear the boss – there was only him and her and, in the back of his mind, there was also Kirito.

Then suddenly time lurched back into the present and Klein hurtled forward and landed, scraping his knees against the stone floor. He almost lost HP, but that wasn't the big deal. The big deal was that Asuna was safe, breathing harshly into the air and looking at nothing in particular.

"Are you okay?" he asked Asuna, as the boss let out another groaning hiss. It was the type of inhuman noise only a monster from a video game could make as it died.

Asuna didn't speak for a moment. It seemed her eyes were glazed out. "Hey! Hey!" Klein waved a hand in front of her face. "Earth to Asuna!"

Finally, she let out a soft groan and started to sit up. "Did we… win…?"

Klein glanced to his right. The monster was gone. Agil stood in the middle of the corridor, panting and leaning on his axe. The victory messages came up on their menus – they had all gained a level.

"Yeah, we won," Klein said quietly.

It didn't quite feel real at that moment. The enormity of actually winning was too much for him to grasp. It felt numb, though he perceived a dull sort of static in his mind as he contemplated the idea of victory. Soon, the warmth and the relief would overcome him.

Asuna smiled weakly. "I'm glad…"

The feeling of panic still had not yet subsided within Klein. He shook her. "Oi! Oi! Don't do that again, okay?"

"I don't know what came over me," Asuna said ruefully. "Everything sort of… fizzed out…"

"Well, good job," said Agil. "We couldn't have beaten the boss without you." Then he frowned. "But seriously, don't do that again."

"S-Sorry."

"Is there a safe zone around here?" Klein asked, letting go of Asuna.

Agil pointed down the corridor which The Fatal Scythe had previously been blocking. "Look, just ahead," he said.

There was a closed door at the end of the corridor. It slowly opened with a creak as a man stepped out into the open.

He was fairly short and rather mild-mannered. His limbs were bony and thin – not emaciated, but nondescript – and his face seemed permanently fixed in a sheepish smile.

"Are you Thinker?" Agil asked.

"Yes, yes, that's me," said the man, looking rather baffled and incredulous. "Kibaou trapped me here and I only just managed to get to the safe zone… How did you manage to defeat that boss…?"

Klein, Asuna and Agil glanced at each other bemusedly. Just how did they pull it off anyway?

* * *

Kibaou slapped Silica.

"Idiot!" He scowled. "You set me off on a wild goose chase!"

Yulier was right. Silica glanced towards the grimacing Army member in dismay. Yulier had his head cast aside, his lips and eyebrows twitching in anger. Kibaou could be violent when he was furious.

Silica backed away, holding up a palm against her smarting cheek. She was more startled than pained.

Just like that, Kibaou's fury seemed to leave him. Even he knew it was too far to go to hit a thirteen-year-old girl, even if people didn't actually feel any _pain _in this world. The desire to hurt someone was what really caused pain in the end.

"Look, you didn't have to go do that," he said awkwardly. "I'm not… I'm not that bad a guy."

"You said you wouldn't hurt her," Yulier said sternly. "But look what you've done."

For a moment, Kibaou said nothing. His attention was no longer focused on Silica.

"Look, you," he said to Yulier finally. "I know you've had it in for me for a while. Why don't you just spit it out already?"

Yulier didn't say anything for a moment either. He simply glared. Silica stiffened – it was like there were sparks being exchanged between them. It was almost suffocating.

"I do have problems with your leadership," Yulier said finally. "Not the least of them hitting a young girl."

"If she didn't _lie _to me…!"

"It's not like I can talk to you," Yulier said haughtily. "You're not the type who listens to words."

There was another pause.

And then suddenly, Kibaou made his way over to Yulier, held him up by the collar and pushed him up against the nearby wall.

"Are you inciting some kind of rebellion against me? Because if you are, _I swear…_!"

"Didn't you betray Thinker?!" Yulier demanded, finally losing his composure. He snarled, his voice just as lashing as his words.

"Betray…?" Kibaou frowned. "Thinker was never a leader! Didn't you see how The Army was collapsing for yourself? Someone had to take control!"

Silica looked from Yulier to Kibaou and then back to Yulier, as if she were following the rally of a tennis match.

"I believed in Thinker's words of peace…!"

"Peace?" Kibaou looked almost confounded now, much less furious or indignant. "This is a death game! How can there be any peace here?"

Yulier frowned and turned his head away.

Kibaou sighed and let go of Yulier. "You wanna know what I think?" There was nothing soft about his expression at all. "I think there's no point in finishing this game. Those frontliners are just pretenders and so was Thinker."

"Thinker's not-!"

"We've been stuck in here two years now, haven't we? Where's the guarantee that we'll be let out in the end, anyway? It's best just to live your life to the fullest here. People like Thinker went on and on about clearing the game, but those were just pretty words. He didn't have the power to live up to what he said. You're all so convinced that this is a game, but this is real, damn it."

Yulier thought back to how Kibaou had gained his power in The Army. While its members were an amalgam of conflicting ideals and personalities, there were two major factions with directly opposing philosophies. After all the losses The Army had incurred against the notoriously difficult Level 25 boss, more and more people had sided with Kibaou's faction. In the end, it was Kibaou's faction that had won out and Thinker was nowhere to be seen.

"You're the true Beaters," Yulier said frowning. "All you've ever cared about is making money!"

"I'm just using common sense!"

Yulier scowled.

"Face it," said Kibaou. "You've lost this argument. Now if you're not gonna side with me, I can kick you out, just like I kicked out Thinker. I don't want there being any in-fighting in this guild."

"You can kick me out but I'll stay loyal to Thinker's ideas to the end."

"What, and you're only Level 60-something? Hypocrites like you make me sick."

Yulier drew out his whip. "What did you just say?"

"Stop it!" Silica yelled out suddenly. "Just stop… stop fighting with each other already!"

She was shaking. The two men glanced sharply at her, having forgotten her existence entirely.

"Isn't there a way you can get along?" Silica insisted.

"You twerp," said Kibaou. "We wouldn't be in this position if there was."

"There's no way I'm siding with this man," Yulier said stubbornly.

There was no moving either of them. Both men were frowning thunderously, refusing to budge even an inch. Silica felt very small and wondered if it was possible for her to shrink and vanish altogether. Though they were in the same guild, Kibaou and Yulier could not have had more enmity between them if they were a player and a boss.

"That's enough!"

The sudden voice cut through all the tension in the room like a knife. Startled at the familiar voice, Silica, Yulier and Kibaou turned around.

Standing at the doorway, panting, was Thinker. Behind him stood Asuna, Klein and Agil, all with their weapons still drawn. Despite his normally weak presence, Thinker stood tall and looked Kibaou straight in the eyes.

"We need to talk," he said.


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10**

It had been an exhausting day for Asuna. The fact that her HP was still at critical condition aside, her knees continued to shake from the boss fight hours after the battle had been fought to its conclusion. She could have dropped dead at any moment and she would not have noticed or cared. She still couldn't wrap her mind that she had managed to defeat such a difficult opponent. She could have – should have – been dead by now. It was all she could think about; she could barely spare a thought for Silica and her mission. The knowledge of the experience had left her reeling.

Thinker told her, "It's okay, you can leave this to me now." She nodded at that; she had done her part. Since she was an outsider, it was best for her to stay out of guild politics.

But there was one thing Asuna resolved to do before she fell asleep at the nearby inn. That night, as she lay stretched out in a nightgown on her bed, she opened up her menu and messaged Kirito.

She wanted to tell him everything that had happened. She wanted to get it off her chest, because the trepidation that gripped her heart was so real it was almost paranoia and Kirito was somehow the furthest away from it all.

Perhaps he was lonely, having been stuck in a cell all day. Or perhaps he was simply one of those people who were more comfortable communicating through text than through speaking. He was a lot more verbose in writing than he was in person, Asuna couldn't help but notice.

"_Has your quest been difficult so far?" _he asked her. _"I didn't expect you to give me a status report…"_

"_It's fine," _she replied, feeling a little conscious of her comparatively slow typing. _"I had to do this all the time with the Knights of Blood."_

"_So you're used to it? I'm glad it's not a distraction. I hope you've been taking care of yourself so far."_

Kirito had a tendency to choose his words very carefully and to type with impeccable spelling and grammar, yet still he typed so quickly it was like having an actual conversation with him. Kirito had a way with both computers and words, and it made Asuna wonder vaguely just what he could have been if he wasn't stuck in a death-game MMO.

She smiled. _"I've been fine! Really!"_

She started telling him about everything that had happened to her that day. At first, Kirito listened without making any comments, but as soon as Asuna mentioned the boss, he started asking her a flurry of questions.

"_What level do you think it was? What kind of moveset did it use? How are you feeling right now? Asuna? Asuna!"_

"_Hold on, Kirito-kun! I can't answer when you're typing so fast."_

"_Oh, sorry."_

"_You should thank Klein and Agil. They really helped me out. It wasn't too bad." _This was the biggest understatement of the year, but she didn't want to worry Kirito. Despite his own precarious situation, he was like a mother hen towards her. Kirito couldn't see her face, so that was all the better for her. She didn't really want to go into the details.

After making the usual comments about her safety, Kirito said, _"I kind of wish I had been there."_

"_Why?"_

"_I'll get rusty at fighting like this… Well, I guess I kind of miss it."_

Asuna laughed, even though Kirito certainly couldn't hear her. If Kirito had been there, she probably would not have fought the way she had. Something would have stopped her. _"Silly!"_

"_I guess I am, aren't I? I'm sorry to worry you. I've been so used to fighting by myself that I don't stop to think about what other people might think of it."_

"_Next time, we'll fight together, Kirito-kun."_

"_I'd be happy to have you at my side, Asuna."_

Did he like her? Sometimes, she thought he did, but she was never entirely sure. She had a feeling she read too much into his words at times.

"_So?" _Kirito wrote questioningly. _"What happened next? You mentioned you rescued Thinker…?"_

"_Oh, right. Thinker's been talking things over with Kibaou. From the looks of it, Kibaou's going to get expelled from The Army and blacklisted. Serves him right."_

"_I agree, but somehow, I think I understand."_

"_You understand?"_

"_Yes. What he said about there being no guarantee of escape and we should enjoy ourselves in this world… I think that's logical."_

Asuna raised her eyebrows. Kirito did have a different perspective from hers on a lot of matters. She had always put that down to him being a solo player and her a guild member, but she just wasn't sure in this case. _"What do you mean?"_

"_I think this world is very real, Asuna. That's all I meant by that."_

"_You still want to escape, don't you? That's what you told me when we partied up."_

"_Listen," _Kirito wrote suddenly. _"There's something I need to tell you."_

That was when he told her about his meeting with Kayaba.

Asuna was, quite frankly, stunned. How could Kirito not have mentioned this from the beginning? This threatened to change everything!

"_What's he after? I don't understand."_

"_I don't understand either. I don't know if he'll keep his word, but I do want to fight him. That's why I'll accept his challenge to fight this boss alone."_

"_Kirito-kun, you can't! I can't let you do that!"_

"_I don't know if it's because I truly want to escape or because I'm a completionist," _Kirito typed, just a fraction slower than usual. (Asuna could imagine he was wearing a grim expression as he was writing.) _"But I can't just turn back now. I really appreciate your help but Asuna-"_

"_Idiot! IDIOT! IDIOT!"_

"_What's wrong?"_

"_Everything! I'm not leaving you, Kirito-kun! I want to be with you, Kirito-kun, can't you see that?"_

As soon as she hit send, her heart stopped in her mouth. Just what had she blurted out?

Kirito's response was a long time coming.

"_Thank you," _was all he wrote.

There was a pause. Asuna couldn't bring herself to say anything (her face was _burning _– so what if this was a text conversation? She had still pretty much confessed to him! Aaaargh she wished she could see his face, what his response was, or maybe she didn't because her face was just too – _aaaaaarrrrrggghhh!_) and at length, Kirito said something more.

"_Asuna, isn't it getting late for you?"_

That took her aback. She glanced at the timer on the menu, surprised. She had been so absorbed in her conversation with Kirito she had forgotten the time. It was well past midnight now.

"_Kirito-kun, you idiot!"_

"_I'm really sorry! I lost track of time too…"_

Asuna sighed.

"_Good night," _she wrote. _"I'm going to sleep now."_

"_Good night, Asuna," _Kirito replied. And then, perhaps a little shyly, he added, _"I want to be with you too."_

But Asuna had already closed her menu.

* * *

It was the knocking on the door that woke Asuna up in the morning. She sat up and rubbed her eyes blearily.

"Who is it?" she called out.

"It's me! Silica!" came the chirpy response from behind the door. "This is Asuna-san's room, isn't it?"

Asuna's hair was a mess. She really didn't want anyone to see her in her bedhead. But seeing as this was Silica… "Come in," she said.

Silica opened the door and entered the room, a bright grin on her face. Her blue dragon Pina was perched on her shoulder. Asuna scrutinised it momentarily – this was the dragon she was seeking. It was somehow a little smaller than she had imagined.

"Hi," Asuna said, smiling. She probably would not have been in the mood if it wasn't for Silica looking so chipper herself. Her mood was infectious.

"Thank you so much, Asuna-san!" Silica declared happily. The dragon let out a soft snort and nuzzled Silica's shoulder. "Without you, I wouldn't have gotten Pina back!"

It turned out Kibaou had confined Pina inside one of the jail cells in the Black Iron Castle. After Thinker got his position back, he broke off the marriage arrangements between Kibaou and Silica and returned the pet monster to its rightful owner.

Asuna smiled weakly. "It was nothing, really."

"Yulier-san said that you needed me for something, so I'd be happy to help you out. Just ask me anything!"

"Hang on," said Asuna. "Let me just brush my hair first..."

"I'll do it for you!"

Silica looked so earnest it was impossible to refuse her. Her eyes were literally sparkling. "Well, okay," said Asuna. "Be careful, it's knotty."

Silica giggled. "You have such pretty hair, Asuna-san. I wish I could be as pretty and strong as you."

Asuna had heard this kind of compliment many times before from men of varying degrees of shadiness, but it was strangely fulfilling to hear it from such a young girl. Not for the first time, Asuna wished she had more female friends in SAO.

She tilted her head and smiled at Silica. "I think you'll be a very pretty girl when you grow up, Silica-chan."

"… And you're so kind too! Asuna-san, it's like you're my oneesan!"

Asuna laughed nervously. Okay, maybe Silica was going a _bit _too far with this.

As the younger girl continued to brush her hair, Asuna began to explain the details of the quest and why she needed a beast tamer. "I need to show your dragon to an NPC but it won't follow anyone but you, right? I promise to keep you safe, Silica-chan, and then I'll send you straight back to the lower floors."

"Okay!"

_Finally_, Asuna thought. They were making progress with the quest. She wasn't going to listen to Kirito – it was something she had to do for her sake as much as his.

Asuna squeezed Silica's hand and whispered, "Thanks."

* * *

Travelling with Silica was enough to make Asuna forget about the horror and fatigues of yesterday. It was almost like the boss fight had never happened. By the time they got going, Silica's bubbling excitement had settled down to quiet contentment. She had a habit of humming pop tunes to herself that Asuna hadn't heard since she had been trapped in the game. It was a strange kind of nostalgia, actually, and though Asuna was still a teenager, being with Silica made her feel as if she had left those years behind her.

Interestingly enough, Silica got along particularly well with Agil too. Sure, he could look scary at times, even to Asuna, but it turned out he was a real softie for kids. Silica, in turn, liked his sense of humour and the little things about the world that he pointed out to her. Asuna wondered if Agil had children in the real world, or if he had been planning to have them, but the question never left the tip of her tongue. Discussing that kind of thing was taboo, especially when children were involved. In fact, one of the unwritten laws among SAO players was never to let children join a predominantly fighting guild. Despite Silica's involvement with Kibaou, she had never formally joined The Army.

Truthfully, Asuna was a little nervous at the prospect of taking Silica to the higher floors, but after restocking on potions and crystals, she figured it would be okay. They didn't particularly have a choice.

"Silica-chan," Asuna said suddenly, thinking of something. "About that Potion of Invulnerability…"

"Oh, do you want one too, Asuna-san?" Silica beamed. "I don't have any in my inventory now but I can bring some to you."

"It's not for me, it's for Kirito-kun," said Asuna. "Ah, but you probably wouldn't know him," she added.

"Kirito-san?!"

Asuna blinked. It was a small world.

"Kirito-san helped me out lots too!" Silica insisted. "I've always wanted to return the favour. That's it, Asuna-san! Let's go get the potions on the way!"

According to Silica, the potions were on the 53rd floor. They weren't a monster drop but rather an item that simply appeared in the dungeon and only Pina could detect it with her nose. It seemed to Asuna that tamed monsters were such rare occurrences there were tangible rewards for possessing them, presumably after having owned them for a while.

It was an unexpected detour but not one that Asuna objected to. Anything that would help Kirito survive that boss battle…

Having been to the dungeon on the 53rd floor before, Asuna vaguely knew her way around. Like most dungeons, it was an underground labyrinth and not a soul was in sight. Why would there be? The frontliners had moved on long ago and dungeons were one of the most dangerous areas for ordinary players to level grind.

At first, Asuna thought that they were not going to enter the dungeon very deeply, but Silica told her that the item drop was deep inside. They came across monsters a few times, but they were easy enough for Asuna to beat.

They walked around like this, seemingly aimlessly, for half an hour. "Hey," said Klein, a little uncertainly. "Maybe it's a better idea to just qu-"

That was when Pina's ears twitched and the dragon hopped off Silica's shoulder.

"Oh, she's found something!" Silica declared happily. "But why's she running off…? Pina…?"

She ran off after her pet.

"Ah, Silica-chan! Wait for us!" Asuna walked briskly after her. Silica turned the corner and was gone. Asuna sighed and picked up her pace, yawning slightly. She was still tired from the long day yesterday and the conversation with Kirito last night.

What she saw when she turned the corner shook all the fatigue out of her.

Silica stood in the middle of the room, clutching Pina against her chest. And she was utterly surrounded by giant hissing snakes. Murder Adders. There had to be at least twenty of them. For a moment, Asuna's mind could barely comprehend the presence of so many monsters clustered in such a small space but soon enough-

"Silica-chan!"

Asuna, Klein and Agil reached for their weapons, but they weren't fast enough.

All the snakes lunged upon Silica at once. Silica screamed – and in that split second Asuna saw _him_.

He was standing in the corner of the room holding a blue flute to his mouth. It was a Monster Flute, an item that called all the monsters in the vicinity to one place. It was a common tool for both grinding and green PKing – killing someone without making your icon change colour.

Kuradeel pulled the flute away from his mouth and laughed maniacally as Silica's screams filled the air.

"Asuna-san! Help me! I'm scared! _I'm scared!"_

Those were her last words. In that moment, her HP counter hit zero and just like that, without any warning, Silica turned to polygon shards and was gone.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11**

For a moment there was just – _silence. _Nothing more, nothing less. Not even the monsters seemed to make a noise. Perhaps they were still hissing, but Asuna did not hear them. It was like a film had come over her ears and everything around her faded away into dull, hollow insignificance.

_No, _she thought. She hadn't seen anything. _No._

_No._

Asuna's heart let forth one erratic, painful thump, and it was the agony that caused time to flow again for her.

She couldn't help it. She threw her head back and screamed.

* * *

When Asuna was young, she had watched a bird with broken wings die before it could ever take off from the ground. It had been struggling haplessly on the ground, but when Asuna leaned forward to pick it up, Sugou had stopped her. "It's dirty," he had told her. "Just leave it alone."

So she had, and before her eyes, the bird fell limp and died, and Sugou tugged on her hand and turned her head away so she wouldn't have to look at it. It was the first time she had ever been exposed to death and to the toddler Asuna it was not so much horrifying as it was a disappointment. _"You didn't do well enough, Asuna," _was the implicit message that dying bird had given her.

It was a feeling that would haunt Asuna throughout her entire life. Disappointments came hand-in-hand with expectations and Asuna – well, Asuna had had enough of expectations.

It was not the first time she had seen death in SAO, but it was the first time it had happened because she was weak and foolish and so utterly naïve. Asuna realised that she had failed, again.

The sense of defeat and hopelessness crushed her lungs.

She could see it in her mind's eye. Her father's eyes looking down at her sternly, his disappointment keen. Her brother turning his back and not bothering to say anything. Silica's smiles bright with adoration and the kind of fondness that ached of ephemeral bonds. Heathcliff, another father with even less love, only more expectations. The guild. Klein. Agil. _Kirito_.

Failure had a way of crushing you, of extinguishing a kind of fire inside you that you didn't know was there until it was gone. Asuna shook, and for a moment, she couldn't breathe, couldn't even _think_. Her mind froze over like it was forcefully shutting itself down for maintenance. When finally, she could move, something beyond despair clouded her thoughts.

Asuna drew out her rapier and ignored the monsters that had caused Silica's demise. White hot rage narrowed her vision down to only one person in the room.

"You _bastard_, Kuradeel!"

She came for him, conscious of nothing but the sword in her hand and the sneering face before her. She gripped the hilt of her weapon so tightly her knuckles were white and she was not even conscious of how hoarse her throat was from her screams. Kuradeel's smug expression soon vanished when she stabbed him through with her sword, and she enjoyed how quickly the look of victory escaped from his eyes.

He was panicking. Oh yes.

"Asuna-sama, stop! _Stop!" _His eyes were wide (but not as wide as Silica's had been – Asuna did not forget these things) and he shook his head frantically. He probably had not believed Asuna would be stabbing him relentlessly like this, but fuck him, Asuna thought as she twisted her blade.

There were probably tears running down her face, she realised dimly. The blade just kept digging in further and further, and to her, that was _good_. It felt right, like nothing else could feel right in this situation.

Kuradeel just kept on screaming, backing himself up against the wall and staring down in abject horror at the sword that looked like it had grown out of his chest. It was only when his HP bar was close to gone altogether that Asuna stopped stabbing him furiously, instead pausing to point the blade at his throat.

"_Why?" _she hissed, pushing the blade closer. She could hear Kuradeel gulp.

The answer wasn't coming quick enough. Silica was dead. Nothing mattered anymore except for the reason and the white hot pinprick of her own boiling fury.

"_ANSWER ME!" _

"I didn't kill anyone!" Kuradeel insisted shrilly. "Look, my icon's green!"

"You lured her to her death."

She could see from his eyes that he was unrepentant about that. She had needed Silica to complete her quest. That was why he had killed her. But she could see him trying to feign that kind of ignorance, even still.

She should have kept up her guard and never forgotten him.

"What are you talking about, Asuna-sama…? I'd have no reason to kill someone like her!"

"She was innocent!" Asuna snarled. "She was just a little girl and you killed her! Would you go so far to make sure Kirito-kun dies?!"

"Asuna-sama, would you really kill me? You've never killed anyone before, have you…?"

That question was almost enough to stop Asuna in her tracks. Kuradeel was right – she had never PKed before because in this world, PKing was the same thing as murder.

"Take pity on me! I'll repent! I never meant to kill the girl!"

He was a _liar_. But in that moment, Asuna's anger faltered and her sword arm shook with doubt.

Kuradeel saw his chance. His eyes glinted with purpose and he moved to push Asuna away from him.

He didn't manage to carry out his plan. By then, Asuna had stopped doubting. Perhaps she would have stopped if the possibility of saving lives had been present, but Silica was dead and everything was just so _wrong_.

It was almost ludicrously simple to finish killing someone. She simply pushed her sword forward and Kuradeel's HP hit zero. He gasped and seemed to choke on his own breath and he let out a terrible, drawn-out scream that Asuna would never forget.

"_Murderer!"_ he howled.

That was all he said before he disintegrated into colourless polygons, not even leaving his corpse behind. Somewhere in the real world, a man died because his brain had failed him.

Asuna's first reaction was to _smile._

Behind her, she could hear Klein and Agil taking on the Murder Adders. The sounds of carnage felt distant to her and unfitting, even though she had just slain someone herself.

It just didn't feel _real_.

After one fleeting moment of euphoria, Asuna realised that someone was dead, her hands were stained with blood no one could see and everything was still so wrong.

Her arms shook and she dropped her sword. Her knees shook and she fell weakly to her knees. All the energy had been drained out of her. She could only stare blankly at the wall, fully aware that nothing had been solved.

She was scared. The fear gripped her unexpectedly but also completely, twisting and wrenching inside of her violently. She could have been sick, but there was no trace of death around her, except within the recesses of her mind. She was scared of herself, of the person she didn't realise that she could be.

Kuradeel was right – she was a murderer.

And she was still a failure.

"Asuna… Asuna!" She could vaguely feel Klein shake her by the shoulders from behind. He was doing it urgently, she could tell that much. Her head lolled forward because she had no more willpower to move herself. "Asuna," she heard Klein call out her name again. "It's okay, everything's okay."

"It's… not," she heard her voice croak out. (Was that really her? It sounded like someone else. Who _was _she?) "It's not, Klein. It's not."

"It's okay, Asuna-san, it's really okay," she heard another voice say.

Who was that? Asuna didn't know any more.

"Turn around, Asuna," Agil's voice said.

It took her physical effort but she managed it, and when Asuna saw who was standing there, her mind went numb again. "You!"

She didn't know what to believe anymore.

Silica was standing before Asuna, tears shining brightly in her eyes. She was still clutching Pina and, sniffing, she shook her head.

"I'm really glad you're okay," she said softly.

But Asuna was no longer capable of speech. She could only stare at Silica dumbly. She had seen this girl die and vanish before her eyes. Was Kuradeel somehow still alive too?

Reading the thoughts in Asuna's eyes, Klein hastened to speak. He knelt down beside Asuna and patted her on the shoulder gingerly.

"Silica did, well, _you know_, but I revived her."

Asuna blinked painful tears out of her eyes. "How…?"

Klein looked down. "A while ago, Kirito gave me a revival item. Only works within ten seconds of death. He told me to use it next time someone died in front of me."

Asuna stared. Kirito had saved them again. She could never thank him – or Klein – enough.

Silica was _alive, _and that was what mattered.

But even so, the gaping hole of failure was still beating hollowly in her heart.

"I'm sorry," she said chokingly, feeling her hands clench into fists beside her. Her eyes scrunched shut. "I'm so, so sorry. You must have been so scared."

Asuna was a red player now, and even if Silica was alive now, nothing could change the fact that she had disappointed everyone in the worst way possible.

* * *

Heathcliff called to see her. The fact that she was a red player was something anyone on her friends list could see, and Heathcliff had noticed almost instantly.

He asked to meet her in the guild HQ and Asuna did not even feel her stomach drop from that. She should have felt devastated, knowing what was coming, but she simply couldn't bring herself to feel anything at all.

"Klein, Agil, continue with the quest," she said to her friends, perceiving the listlessness in her voice that she could not shake away. "Protect Silica-chan."

"Asuna," Agil said gruffly. "Take care of yourself. I mean it."

Asuna looked at three pairs of concerned eyes and did the one thing she thought she could never do. She smiled.

"Thank you, guys. I'm so glad Silica-chan's alive. Thank you, Klein. Thank you for fighting the monsters, Agil. Thank you. I'm just tired so please don't worry."

She was still shaken but now that the smile was there, it wouldn't leave her face. It was like an etched reminder of what she should be feeling. She wanted to see Heathcliff, she realised, but she couldn't explain why.

Her friends couldn't follow her into the guild, so they had to say their goodbyes there. Asuna could feel their eyes on her back, long after she had left them. They really were concerned about them. She had no idea what she could do to ease their minds. She wished, but she could only concentrate on herself for now.

Inside the guild, she did not pause to say hello to anyone and she could perceive others staring at her, at the red icon above her name. Heathcliff was sitting in his usual spot and she met him with her head held high.

"You called, Commander Heathcliff."

There was one man in the world that she could never show her weakness too. And that was the man who was peering across at her from the table, his expression immovable and so calm not even a thunderstorm could shake it.

But today, he looked at her with some kind of emotion behind his cool veneer and she could not for the life of her figure out what it was. He was measuring her with his gaze, she could tell that much, though what sort of conclusions he came to was what she did not know.

She sure could guess, though.

"Tell me what happened," he said sternly, and Asuna did what she was told. She said she killed Kuradeel because it was true and that was that.

Heathcliff blinked once and, folding his hands together, he simply looked at her.

There was one thing Asuna could not resist asking. "About my punishment… will I, along with Kirito-kun…?"

Heathcliff spoke up then, his tone both grave and severe. "Asuna, you are hereby expelled from the Knights of the Blood."

These were the words Asuna had fully expected to hear.

She bowed her head and accepted them.

"I did not expect you to go as far as you did. You are to join Kirito in fighting the Level 75 boss. That is something I would like to see."

Asuna looked up, a little stunned. Finally, she thought she could read that inscrutable expression on Heathcliff's face. He was smiling, his lips turned upwards in a gesture that could have meant both nothing and everything.

It was _strange._

That was when she realised that, against all the odds, Heathcliff was actually proud of her. She had proven herself to him at last.

* * *

It was the last circumstances under which she expected to meet with Kirito again. He was really the same as ever, though perhaps slightly dishevelled in appearance. The confinement had taken its toll on him.

"Asuna…!" he exclaimed, sitting up straight to peer at her in shock. "What happened…? Why are you…?"

The guards shut the door of the cell, leaving Kirito and Asuna locked inside together. Asuna cast her head down and scraped her feet. Kirito probably hated her now, or he would, as soon as he knew what happened.

"Asuna, what's wrong?" He stood up and came near her. His arms rose up, motioning as if to touch her, before falling weakly by his sides. "What _happened_?"

"Kirito-kun, I…"

She looked at his face, one that was filled with nothing but endless concern for her, and that was enough. Asuna went over the brink then.

She burst into tears.

"I'm a murderer, Kirito-kun…! I killed Kuradeel and I… I… I didn't protect Silica-chan…! I shouldn't have tried to bother you, I won't do it anymore, I-!"

Kirito said nothing. He put his arms around and held her like that, and she could feel the warmth exuding from him. She clutched his arms and sobbed into his chest, and somehow, she felt a little better for doing so, as if she was letting it all out.

"You can cry, Asuna," Kirito said to her softly, his arms squeezing around her.

It was one thing Asuna realised about the life-or-death: it brought out the best in a person and it also brought out the worst. She didn't know if she could ever be redeemed. There was no going back now, not for her.

She didn't know how long she cried. Kirito had the patience of a saint, or maybe he was just frozen to the spot and didn't know what else to say to comfort her. But at least he was holding her steady, and that was enough. He didn't need to say anything.

It was only later, after she had cried and removed herself from him, that she told him exactly what had happened. He had listened to her, unable to keep his emotions off his face as he did so.

"I'm weak, Kirito-kun," Asuna said with a heavy sigh. "I wished I could have become strong in this world, but I didn't. I'm still weak."

"You're wrong, Asuna," Kirito said quietly. "You're one of the strongest people I know."

She could tell he meant it. Asuna smiled weakly, feeling as if her face was porcelain because of how tender it felt for her to touch.

"We'll beat the boss together, Kirito-kun," she said.

"I swear I'll protect you, Asuna," he said seriously.

She didn't know what to say to that. Some part of her wanted to keep fighting for herself, but another part of her knew that she was being silly and defiant without actually being strong. Kirito had accepted her offer for help; it was time for her to accept him.

"We'll go back to the real world, Kirito-kun," she said to him. "I want to go back. Let's do it together."

Kirito simply breathed.

"Okay," he said.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: **Somewhere during the intermission in this chapter, Kirito told Asuna about Sachi. I just wasn't bothered writing it out since it would have been identical to the scene in canon and it wasn't a particularly important scene anyway.

**Chapter 12**

_One week later…_

Just like any other day, Lizbeth downed her four cups of coffee and worked her 9-to-5 job of making something out of nothing. Her morning was normal, perhaps even a little sedate, right up until the moment when Klein and Agil walked into her shop. That was when Lizbeth turned her head, put down her hammer and smoothed down her dress, biting her lips in anticipation.

"You got the ore?" she said.

"Yeah," said Agil. "There was a lot of mucking around, but we got it in the end."

He opened up his menu and traded the item to Lizbeth. _Orichalcum_. Lizbeth read through the item description with a small smile. She was probably the only person in the game who possessed one. The stat parameters it offered were even higher than she had expected. Lizbeth's eyebrows rose when she noted this fact.

"You can make the sword, right?" said Klein. "We got more if you need any… make some for Asuna too."

For a moment, Lizbeth didn't say anything. Her teeth were chattering in anticipation, she realised, and she wasn't sure if she was scared or just exhilarated.

"How long do we have?" she asked.

Klein and Agil glanced at each other. They knew what question Lizbeth was asking, even if she didn't ask it directly.

"They say they'll reach the boss room by tomorrow," Klein said, scratching his cheek.

So the frontliners had worked through this level faster than usual. Lizbeth wondered if Heathcliff had something to do with it.

"Ah well, doesn't matter," she said, grinning. "You got here in time still. And now…"

She placed the ore on the anvil. The Orichalcum, a green rock, reminded Lizbeth vaguely of Kryptonite.

"Right," she said. "So anyone got a few prayers for me?"

"Huh, what for?" said Klein, scratching his head.

"Well, you know how it is," said Lizbeth. "The strength of the weapon is decided by luck."

"Let's pray to Kayaba," said Klein.

"What, is he your idea of a god?" snorted Lizbeth. "More like a demon to me."

Even though Lizbeth had laughed out loud, inside, the anticipation heightened. No matter how much people said that forging had little to do with how well you physically carried out the process or the emotions within you, Lizbeth had always believed that a sword beyond levels was capable of being moved. Kirito's Dark Repulsor and Asuna's Lambent Light were one thing, but she knew she could do better now. She had to.

She closed her eyes.

"I've only got one shot at this…"

Klein and Agil watched Lizbeth silently as the girl set about making the most important pair of swords in her life.

* * *

"We need to think about strategy," Kirito said to Asuna.

It was a topic the two of them had constantly talked about since entering confinement together. On the face of it, it seemed logical to talk about such a thing, but the more one thought about it, the more useless it seemed. It only made Kirito remember how little he knew about the bosses and how they worked. Sure, they had worked out general strategies to tackle the bosses by now, but every single fight was different from the last. Kayaba had to have an endless amount of programming and imagination to make them so varied.

Still, Kirito had a lot worked out in his mind. He had memorised not just all of his stats but also all of Asuna's, and when he sat very still and concentrated hard enough, he could visualise a number of different manoeuvres the two of them could attempt together.

Since there were only two of them, Kirito imagined a fight where they took it in turns trying to handle the boss while the other recovered. They would need all the dexterity they could get. No one could afford to be a meat shield and take hits, so they would have to rely on their ability to dodge. But dodging in SAO required a lot of factors and not just high stats. Part of it came down to how quickly the mental reflexes were – it was, after all, a game where the player's movements were connected via brain impulses from the Nerve Gear. The faster Kirito could be in his mind, the faster his body could move in the game.

Over the week, Kirito came up with a number of scenarios based on the different types of monsters one could encounter in the game. If the monster was humanoid, for instance, it would be best if Asuna took the lead because her rapier was faster than his dual swords, but if the monster was not humanlike at all, it would be Kirito striking the main blows because there was more flesh to target.

"Asuna, how about you circle the boss while I try to get its back to face to you? Can you imagine that in your head?" Kirito asked.

"Sort of," Asuna said doubtfully.

"You need to strike quickly and then back off."

"But Kirito-kun, you know how bosses can have area effect attacks. That kind of bait and switch tactic won't work unless…"

"Unless you get it to focus on just one of us by using a Provoke skill…"

"But that's very dangerous, Kirito-kun. I suppose we can always use the Potion of Invulnerability." (Silica had given them one potion each, the absolute limit that their inventory could hold.)

"We need to save those until we need them, though," Kirito pointed out. "You know how some bosses have Hate Skills too, right? So if we wait until they use that move for when we use the potion and then come onto it together…"

"Wouldn't it be better if we used them one at a time and while the potion's effect is going on, we try and solo the boss? Maybe we'll get more usability that way."

"Ah, good point, Asuna."

Their conversations went like this, and day after day, Kirito's mind and stomach churned with the suggestion of possibilities. He probably could have kept up this kind of concentrated thinking for weeks, but Asuna tired of it first. She gradually stopped keeping pace with his suggestions and simply sat in the corner of the cell, sighing and hugging her knees. Kirito knew that the incident with Kuradeel still bothered her, though she had not spoken of it at all since the first day. Kirito tried to distract her from that by talking about the boss, but even that was something Asuna did not seem fond of discussing.

"Enough with the strategy talk, Kirito-kun," she groaned one day. "You know there's no real way of preparing for it."

Kirito knew. He just preferred not to think about it.

"So what do _you _want to talk about?" he asked, grumbling, settling down beside her.

"I don't know," Asuna mused aloud. "I wish they had games in here."

Kirito found this to be rather ironic, considering they were stuck in a game.

"Well, yeah, I agree," said Kirito. "SAO doesn't really have minigames, come to think of it." Then again, Kirito was not a big fan of minigames at all. He found them to be rather frustrating, though the rewards were usually worth it.

"Let's play trivia, Kirito-kun," Asuna said suddenly.

Kirito raised an eyebrow. "Trivia?"

"We'll ask each other questions. Go on, ask me something, Kirito-kun."

"Er…" Kirito thought. "What's the col drop rate of the Grey Fenrir?"

"That's easy, Kirito-kun. Around 10,000, isn't it?"

"10,853," said Kirito. He smiled. "Your turn."

"Gosh, you're such a know-it-all, Kirito-kun."

He was no encyclopaedia like Heathcliff was, but he was pretty confident in his knowledge of SAO.

Asuna tapped her chin in thought, and then, glancing meaningfully towards Kirito, she matched his smile, her eyes twinkling mischievously.

"What's the capital city of Canada?"

Kirito blinked. That was unexpected.

"Um," said Kirito intelligently.

"What, don't know it?" Asuna laughed. "And it's such an easy question!"

Kirito scowled inwardly. That was not the kind of knowledge that was useful to him. But seeing Asuna laugh at him made him feel as if it was something he should have known and he hated the feeling of being bad at something.

"Vancouver," he said.

"Nope!" Asuna replied, her eyes twinkling.

Kirito licked his lips. "Toronto?"

"Nah-uh!"

Kirito frowned. That was all the cities in Canada that he knew.

"Um."

He started to sweat.

"Er…"

"Well?" Asuna pressed him.

"New York?"

"Are you retarded?" Asuna asked him.

"This is a stupid game," said Kirito.

Asuna just kept on chuckling. "I've just found a new side to you, Kirito-kun." She waved her hands quickly. "Oh, I don't think it's a bad thing, though!"

Kirito did not quite understand what Asuna was getting at there, so he just said nothing. He could feel that his face was red. It was true that his knowledge about things beyond gaming and computers was rather limited. Here in SAO, though, that had never seemed like an issue.

"Hey, Kirito-kun," Asuna said suddenly. "When we break out of this world, will we still be us? Or will we not be able to fit in anymore?"

"I… don't know," Kirito said quietly. "To be honest, I don't think I really fit in to begin with."

"Oh," said Asuna, her voice subdued. "As for me, I still want to go back."

"I know."

"I just… I know I won't be the same person. Ah, but this is stupid. I should be thinking about the boss."

"Yeah," said Kirito. Not knowing quite what to say, he changed the subject back to strategy. "I was thinking we should just ditch potions altogether and rely on the instant restore properties of crystals. I think we should ask if we can visit the store before we go. It'll cost a lot but-"

Asuna just laughed again.

"What's funny?" Kirito asked, puzzled.

Asuna's giggle fizzled away into a small, contented smile. "Oh, it's nothing. Talking to you just made me feel better somehow."

"Oh, okay." Actually, he didn't understand at all, but he thought it was best not to mention that. Maybe that knowledge was about as important as knowing the capital city of Canada. "So are you ready to fight the boss tomorrow?"

"I think so," Asuna said, nodding firmly. "I think I can do it. How about you?"

Actually, he didn't think he could ever shake away the feeling of nervousness entirely, but… "Same here."

If he was being sent off to his death, he would rather die with someone at his side. Kirito understood this and knew that it was selfish, so maybe the best thing to do in the end was simply to live. For his sake, and for Asuna's.

* * *

The guards took them to the entrance of the dungeon that next morning. They shook Kirito and Asuna awake harshly, announcing to them: "The level's been cleared." They could have treated their former vice-commander with more delicacy, Kirito thought, but now was hardly the time to be indignant over such matters.

It was a surprise when they actually reached their destination. A small crowd of frontliners had gathered outside the entrance, including Heathcliff standing tall in his red armour. But there was also Klein, Agil and, most astonishingly, Lizbeth.

"Liz, what are you doing here?" Kirito heard Asuna ask, stunned. "It's dangerous here!"

"Not as dangerous as it's gonna be for you two," Lizbeth responded briskly. "I've got your swords right here so step right up and give it a whirl."

That was when Kirito noticed the bags under Lizbeth's eyes. She had been spending the whole night working on these, evidently.

"I don't know how to thank you, Liz," he said numbly.

She turned to him. Their eyes connected, and Lizbeth's freckled face brightened into a smile. She went over to Kirito and patted him on the back.

"Just live," she whispered into his ear. "That's all you need to do for me."

Then she took a step back, opened up her menu and traded them the weapons.

"So, uh, what do you guys thinks?" Liz asked, scratching the back of her neck.

"It… It's… perfect!" Asuna exclaimed, marvelling the feel of the sword in her hands. Its blade was bright yellow, not like gold but like sunflowers and the feeling of joy itself. The name 'Joyeuse' was a fitting title for it.

As for Kirito…

He noticed immediately from its sense of balance and weight that it was a blade easier to handle than even the Elucidator. Ragnarok, it was called. Its parameters were extraordinary, without a doubt the highest levelled weapon available in the game so far. It was just the kind of craftsmanship Kirito had come to expect from Lizbeth.

He picked up Ragnarok with his right hand and drew out his Elucidator with his left hand. He could hear a gasp (of admiration? Dread?) from the crowd and experimentally, he swung the two blades in unison. Honestly, it felt like his swords could cut through wind itself. He had missed this feeling, he realised, of swinging his swords without restraint.

"Boss'll be a piece of cake, right?" said Klein, tossing a thumbs up his way.

Kirito chuckled. The nervousness in him was slowly starting to fold itself up – not vanish altogether, but it somehow compressed itself.

"Thanks for everything, Klein," he said. It was all he could bring himself to mention for now. "You too, Agil."

The older man showed Kirito a thumbs up as well. "Knock 'em dead, Kirito."

Vaguely, Kirito wondered if his friends were actually worried themselves and that their confidence in him was just something they put on. But it was hardly productive to think of that now.

"So," he heard Heathcliff say behind him. "Are you ready?"

Kirito turned around and faced the man who had imprisoned him – and felt no resentment, only a mild sense of awe. He couldn't shake the feeling that Heathcliff was testing him, just like Kayaba probably was.

Kayaba. Kirito had a feeling he probably wouldn't see him again until after the battle. It was yet another reason to stay alive, as far as he was concerned.

Firmly, Kirito nodded to Heathcliff. "I'm ready."

"Then begin," Heathcliff said, motioning towards the crowd outside the door.

Slowly, the frontliners pushed open the door of the dungeon room. It had to be at least twenty metres tall and ten metre wide. Oh yes, there was probably more than enough room to fight this fight. Whatever beast lay inside had to be of monolithic proportions.

Asuna nudged him. "Come on," she whispered. "Let's go."

And together, they walked inside that dark, unlit chamber, where they met their fate.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: **I've tweaked the boss design slightly for this story. It's boring if the fight plays out the same way in canon, after all.

**Chapter 13 **

Come to think of it, Kirito thought, this wasn't the first time he and Asuna had attempted to fight a boss together. Just on the last floor, for instance, they had teamed up and made their way down to the dungeon. Except upon seeing what the boss looked like and its outrageous HP bar, the two of them had promptly run back out the boss room. If it was physically possible to do so in this world, Kirito might have wet himself.

He was sort of experiencing that sense of déjà vu here.

The boss room was cavernous, easily wide enough to fit over fifty players and let them manoeuvre around. It appeared they were standing on a platform hovering over a pitch-black abyss. When Kirito squinted in the distance, he could see more platforms – but they were uninhibited. The boss was nowhere to be seen.

It was essentially a dark and completely lifeless room. Kirito looked around frantically, seeing and hearing nothing. Behind him, he heard the door slam shut and we swung around, his swords drawn in anticipation, the door was gone altogether.

Backing up against Asuna, Kirito whispered to her out of the corner of his mouth. "Notice anything?" He was somehow afraid of raising his voice here. Speaking had a way of echoing in here. Not that it really mattered – wherever the boss was, it probably already knew where they were standing.

He heard a shuffling sound behind him as Asuna's hand gripped tighter over the hilt of her sword. "Hear that?" she said, cocking her head.

"Hear what?"

"That… noise."

Kirito pricked his ears. At first, he was going to tell Asuna that he couldn't heard anything, but then his ears detected something – faint but definitely audible.

Unbidden, a chill rolled down his spine.

It was a scratching noise accompanied by the sound of rustling. Gradually, the sound increased in volume, until Kirito could identify what it was. It had to be a monster, clicking its pincers together, a thousand sharpened blades.

But where was it coming from…? He turned his head left and right, even stared down into the abyss. But there was nothing to be seen. The scratching sound continued to resonate throughout the room, growing louder by the second.

Asuna exclaimed suddenly:

"It's above us!"

Kirito looked up sharply – and that was when the monster descended upon them.

All he could see in that one blurred moment was myriad ghostly white blades dancing on the ceiling. "Look up!" Asuna screamed. Kirito needed no telling twice – the two of them scrambled forward and ran for their lives.

The boss landed with a heavy crash on the ground, causing a tremor to reverberate throughout the chamber. Kirito held his breath and clenched his teeth hard as he struggled to stay aground. Quickly, he swung back around to face the boss properly.

Rule no. 1 of fighting monsters – never turn your back to them.

The Skull Reaper, it was called, boasting five full bars of HP. With a morbid sense of awe, Kirito realised that the blades he saw were in fact its legs; this creature was a giant, skeletal centipede. The monster's hundred razor-sharp legs flexed and made scraping noises against the stone floor, but it wasn't just the legs that propped it up. Two extra long bone scythes protruded from the side of its tall, humanlike spine, giving the impression that the monster had arms. Arms that, Kirito could not help but notice, could probably slice through a person like a cleaving knife could slice hot butter.

Yet its face was truly the most grotesque thing about it. Four gleaming red eyes were set in an asymmetrical, inhuman face. Its jaw opened wide, revealing a row of jagged teeth and the hollow insides of a skeletal body. Kirito's first impulse was to throw his swords down and run, but there was nowhere he could go. If he ran much further behind him, he'd fall off the platform and never be seen again.

It was naïve to think that this boss was something he could actually handle by himself. He could tell, just from sight, that it was on a completely different league from The Gleam Eyes…

He took a deep breath. No, he couldn't allow himself to think like that. He'd fought with hard bosses on his own before. He could do this. And besides, there was _Asuna_-

-who was currently, he realised, holding on tightly to the sleeve of his arm.

"Get down!" she hissed, and with that, she yanked his body down.

There was a whooshing sound above his head, almost causing his heart to stop in its tracks. The boss had swung one of its scythe-like arms at the two of them. He hadn't even seen that blow coming…!

As they scrambled back to their feet, Asuna pursed her lips and just _looked _at him. "Kirito-kun, you're rusty, aren't you…?"

He was, he realised with a sense of shock and horror. After all those days trapped inside a cell, his body had started to lose its reflexes. Or perhaps the problem lay more in his mind.

It didn't really matter either way.

He couldn't bring himself to respond to Asuna. With a grunt, Kirito crossed his dual blades and attempted to block the next incoming blow. He wasn't fast enough to dodge so parrying would have to do…

But The Skull Reaper's blow almost knocked him off his feet. Kirito inhaled sharply, pushing his weight against the blade. It felt like he was losing a tug-of-war against the beast.

A clanging sound told him that Asuna had joined in trying to parry the attack. For that one brief moment, the scythe weakened in its assault. Together, Kirito and Asuna pushed against their blades and managed to force the scythe back.

It looked like if the two of them blocked together, they could succeed in parrying. That, at least, was comforting.

Kirito glanced at Asuna.

She was already panting slightly, but she smiled at him grimly. _Let's do this_, her smile seemed to say. Kirito nodded firmly at that.

"Do you see any openings?" Asuna asked, skidding backwards neatly to avoid the blades on The Skull Reaper's tail. Her movements were a little on the clunky side too, Kirito couldn't help but notice, but her consummate skill got her through.

Experimentally, Kirito slashed at one of the centipede's legs. It was like trying to hack through steel with a butter knife. Kirito glanced sharply towards the monster's HP bar – nope, he hadn't managed to inflict even a sliver of damage.

"It's got to have a weak spot…"

Without warning, one of the legs lashed out at Kirito and before he could dodge, the blades sank into his arms and legs. With a gasp, Kirito pulled away.

"Are you okay?!" Asuna cried.

Kirito glanced at his HP bar. Wordlessly, he began to use a healing crystal.

If just those small blades could inflict so much damage, then a direct hit from the main scythes was probably an OHKO…

Kirito did not want to verbalise this distressing thought.

A hollow voice in the back of his head cried, _"You should give up! This boss is too strong for you!" _But Kirito only grit his teeth and swung his two swords again. This time, he aimed higher, and with a long, drawn-out roar born out of vigour and desperation, he lodged the Ragnarok into The Skull Reaper's spine.

"_Raaaaaargh!_"

The creature let out a hiss.

"Attack the spine!" Kirito yelled.

He heard Asuna reply behind him. "Oka- _aaaaaargh!_"

"Asuna!"

Eyes wide, he turned around and for a moment, it wasn't Asuna getting hit by The Skull Reaper's tail – it was Sachi. But when he blinked, the demure blue-haired girl was replaced by his now familiar brown-haired clearing partner. Of course. Sachi was _dead _and Asuna-

Asuna was-

"Asuna!" he cried out her name again and in that moment of blind stupidity, he left the Ragnarok wedged between two of The Skull Reaper's bones. Instead, he ran over to Asuna, who was lying weakly on the floor. "Answer me, Asuna!"

"Kirito-kun…"

Kirito peered at her HP bar. It was already halfway gone and Asuna's status was paralysed. So getting hit by the tail induced paralysis… This wasn't good. Asuna couldn't move.

Kirito simply didn't have the time to open up his menu and apply a status healing crystal. The tail was still lashing out ferociously and if he waited any longer, the scythes would hit him too.

His mind cleared itself of all thoughts. Kirito picked up Asuna in his arms and leaped out of the way. Behind him, he could hear The Skull Reaper's tail slamming into the ground on the spot where he had been just a millisecond earlier. Kirito broke out into a dash.

He ran as he had never run before, rolling and twisting out of the way of the blades, anticipating where they would strike before The Skull Reaper even moved its limbs. He heard Asuna let out a gasp and cling to his shirt. Grunting with exertion but also with growing panic, Kirito blocked one of the smaller scythes with his remaining sword. His eyes flashed with purpose.

"_Hyaaaaah!"_

Perhaps it was the desperation behind his sword stroke that allowed him to cut through the bone and let the smaller scythe crash to the floor, before vanishing altogether.

Kirito didn't pause for a moment. Gripping Asuna tighter, he catapulted through the air and landed painfully on the ground several metres away. He landed on his back, bearing the brunt of the fall and not letting Asuna suffer any damage.

For the moment, at least, they were out of the centipede's range.

Exhaling harshly, Kirito let go of Asuna. Then he sat up and applied the status recovery crystal before following it up with the healing one.

"You okay?" Kirito asked gruffly, getting to his feet and readying his sword. He could see the boss scuttling rapidly towards them.

"I'm okay," Asuna said shakily. "How were you so fast while holding me…?"

Kirito didn't know and to be frank, he didn't really care. In another situation, this would have held his attention, but when a giant skeletal monster was peering down at him with a wide, gaping mouth and baring its scythes upon them, he had other things to think about.

He rued leaving the Ragnarok inside the beast in his panic. There was no way he could get close enough to retrieve his sword now.

"Urk…!"

Asuna placed a hand on her arm. "Don't worry, Kirito-kun. Leave it to me."

"Asuna, are you-?!"

But he couldn't finish his sentence. The monster had come and Kirito swallowed his words into his mouth. Asuna leapt to her feet and pressed her rapier forward. That was his cue to block The Skull Reaper's large scythe along with her.

"Hold it like that while I get your sword," Asuna whispered to him urgently. "We'll switch when I'm ready."

Kirito gritted his teeth and bent his knees. He could do what Asuna wanted – he would not let the monster's scythe get to him.

The press of the scythe felt noticeably stronger when Asuna skirted away. Kirito held his ground, pushing against the scythe with all of his might, even though he only had one sword equipped. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed The Skull Reaper's barbed tail swishing out and speeding towards him.

_Of all the…!_

Keeping his blade pressed up against the scythe, Kirito sidestepped the tail. He had to time the moment of release. When he let go, he hastily rolled aside and watched as the enemy's scythe sliced into his own tail.

He had always wondered if monsters could inflict damage on themselves in this game. It looked like it worked, Kirito noted with a sense of relief, as the wicked blade of the scythe cut through the barb on the tail. Now they wouldn't have to worry about being paralysed.

"Kirito-kun! Here!"

Kirito's menu opened up with a flash and from about ten metres away, Asuna passed him the Ragnarok.

Kirito took the sword and brandished them both against the monster's spine.

"Heh," said Asuna. "Looks like your rustiness cleared up."

That was a relief to him. He hadn't noticed just when his old skill had come back. Ah, it was probably when he had been so desperate to shield Asuna from damage.

He smiled as he readied his Sword Skill stance.

He was back in the groove.

* * *

"How do you think they're doing?" Lizbeth nudged Klein and asked.

"Dunno," said Klein.

"You're useless." Lizbeth rolled her eyes.

Klein just grinned. "Kirito's strong. I taught the little guy everything he knows." (_That was a lie – wasn't it the other way around?_ Lizbeth thought.) "Trust me, he and Asuna'll be fine."

"Hmmm." Lizbeth merely grunted and leaned her head back, her eyes flickering towards Heathcliff and the other Knights of the Blood.

She didn't know about anyone else, but for her, it was telling that the only clearers on this level were the KoB. Heathcliff stood by the doorway with his arms folded imperiously and though Lizbeth had never talked with him personally, she had heard enough descriptions from Asuna to know that what he said was law in these parts. It made her wonder…

"What's up?" Agil asked, noticing Lizbeth's unusually contemplative expression.

Lizbeth leaned towards Agil, beckoning to him to lean down so she could whisper into his ear. "Don't you think it's suspicious? Do you think anyone besides us and the KoB know that Asuna killed Kuradeel?"

"Actually, I've been wondering the same thing," Agil said. "I don't think anyone does."

"What are you two whispering about?" asked Klein.

"Well, it's like this," said Lizbeth, holding a finger to Klein's lips. "I bet the only people in the entire game who know that Asuna's a red player are gathered right here in this room."

Klein looked around himself and nodded. "Yeah, I'd agree with that. I guess it would be natural to try and keep that sort of thing hush."

"Why?"

"Well, if you think about it a little, it's obvious. Having a known PKer in your guild would really bring down your reputation as a group, wouldn't it? Even if Asuna did it in self-defence, you'd naturally feel suspicious around anyone whose icon is red. I'm not saying Asuna is suspicious, though!"

"Yeah, I know," said Lizbeth, frowning. "I think it's starting to make sense to me…"

"What is?" asked Agil.

Lizbeth looked around to see whether or not Heathcliff was looking at them before whispering to the two men.

"I don't think Heathcliff or any of the others are expecting Asuna to come out alive… or if she does, they're going to kill her."


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14**

"Don't get cocky!" Asuna called out to Kirito warningly.

It was fair enough for her to caution him. If you let your guard down for just one moment, you would die, and this was actually a surprisingly easy thing for an experienced player to do, even when he was using his full concentration. Perhaps it was even _because _of that concentration.

Simply put, there were certain phases in every boss fight. The first phase was generally the hardest – Kirito didn't know the boss's moves and abilities and the real challenge came from trying to read the moves, avoid damage and to inflict damage all at the same time. Fighting bosses wasn't like fighting other humans, who constantly changed their strategies. Monsters could only follow a set pattern, and once a player worked that out, the only thing that was really needed was the patience to continue applying the right skills. That was when the second phase of the boss fight began – the monotony.

No way around it, really, since the bosses in SAO were designed to have inflated HP counters and to be attacked in groups. Even then, the fighting sometimes took up to an hour to complete. In the end, it wasn't just a test of skill or level grinding – it became a battle of the minds, and since bosses couldn't suffer from mental fatigue like the players could, only those with the strongest mental fortitude could regularly fight on the frontlines. It was like a chess game – concentrate too intensely and you'd burn out, but relax your mind too much and you'd make mistakes. Kirito had seen this kind of dilemma play out numerous times on the battlefield and he knew himself to be just as susceptible to the consequences as anyone else.

Above all, fighting bosses required _balance_.

Kirito and Asuna blocked a scythe attack together and then, nodding to each other firmly, they made for the monster's spine. The second phase of the boss battle had begun in earnest. It was the most delicate time of all.

* * *

"They're gonna kill Asuna?!"

"Shhhhh!" Lizbeth waved her hands in front of Klein's face. "Not so loud! They're gonna hear!"

"Sorry." Then Klein frowned and scratched his chin. "What makes you think they're gonna do that? Won't Kirito be mad?"

"I don't really understand guild politics too well," Lizbeth admitted. "But I did hear the story about Sprite Tail. Wasn't that around a year ago?"

Klein knew the story too. A year ago, before the Knights of the Blood rose to prominence as the dominant clearing guild, many smaller guilds had worked alongside each other. Back then, there wasn't as much clear division between guilds as there was these days, and people left and joined other guilds whenever they fancied. Since there were more col and exp benefits to be gained from joining a guild that did well in battle, the turnover rate tended to be pretty high when all the guilds were in competition with each other.

Then, in a scandal that became known to pretty much everyone living in Aincrad, one of the members of Sprite Tail turned out to be a PKer. He killed a frontliner from another guild and took his items. One by one, other crimes committed by Sprite Tail members came to light, though none of these rumours were really confirmed to be true or not. They had a propensity for joining other guilds so they could steal from them, it was said, and then they shared the spoils among themselves. In a death game like SAO where nobody knew all the details about how the world worked, any rumour could get blown out of proportion. Sprite Tail had been a big guild and the likelihood was that not every member was a murderer or thief, but what that PKer did cast a shadow over everyone involved.

Soon after that scandal, Sprite Tail disbanded. Most of its members had quit, no longer wanting to be associated with a bad name, and so the guild could no longer sustain itself. That was the incident that caused the other guilds to become much more insular – you didn't just accept any old player. As for the former Sprite Tail members, nobody trusted them enough to accept them into their guilds and eventually, most of them just gave up on being on the frontlines. A few of them banded together or became Solo Players, but their contribution was minimal at best.

It was just one of the many reasons why there were so few frontliners seriously trying to clear the game. MMOs were inherently selfish games and so was human nature, so there wasn't much trust between players to begin with and incidents like the Sprite Tail scandal only exacerbated the situation. People constantly dropped out of the frontliner ranks, while the game's steep experience curve made it too difficult for mid-level people to replace them. Besides, if you weren't in the "in" group to begin with, it was almost impossible to form connections with other players. Almost every frontliner in the game currently had been a frontliner from day one with little to no breaks from clearing. It was a harsh life; not many people could take it.

Which was why, Klein realised, that the Knights of the Blood absolutely could not afford to let Asuna's PK status become public, and neither was it a good idea that he, Agil and Lizbeth expose the secret. If something like the Sprite Tail incident repeated itself and the Knights of the Blood became weakened because of it or even disbanded, the frontline would probably crumble altogether. Not to mention that it would be a huge blow to the collective morale. By this stage, it was only really Heathcliff holding everyone together.

"What do we do?" Klein asked worriedly.

"I don't reckon there's anything we _can _do," said Agil. "We gotta wait for Kirito and Asuna to come back out alive."

"Hey, I've got an idea," Klein said suddenly. "They can join my guild. Well, Asuna can. I don't care if we get a bad rep – we're a tight group."

"You're being naïve," said Lizbeth cuttingly. "Asuna's spent almost two years with the Knights of the Blood – who do you think people are gonna still associate her with? Them or your obscure little college clique?"

On occasion, Lizbeth could aim her words to maim. Klein winced.

Instead of continuing to speak immediately, Lizbeth glanced towards Heathcliff once again. This time, the Paladin was looking in their direction sternly before turning back to his comrades. Maybe he had heard their conversation. Lizbeth burrowed her head down hastily.

"Maybe," she resumed in a hushed tone, "they're trying to use Kirito-kun as the scapegoat, to blame it all on him. He's the Beater – being with him corrupted her. What do you think? _That's _why Heathcliff sent the two of them into the boss room together, because he had no choice besides killing Asuna outright."

"So if Kirito and Asuna survive…" Klein began, not liking where this was going.

"… they're gonna keep sending them in first to face the boss every time until they drop," Agil finished grimly.

The three of them glanced uneasily at each other.

"That's ludicrous!" Agil hissed.

… And they couldn't speak up about it, not if they wanted to clear the game.

Furiously, Klein punched the nearby wall.

"Damn it!" he cursed to himself. His expression scrunched up into a frown and his fist clenched tighter until his fingers were white. "Damn it, I'm sorry…"

* * *

This was what Kirito and Asuna needed to do:

First, they needed to survive. They needed to defeat the boss without making a single mistake or else they would get killed in one hit. No matter how much damage they inflicted on the boss, its power level was not decreasing anytime soon. Kirito and Asuna were human – the boss was not.

Secondly, they needed to escape from Heathcliff and the Knights of the Blood. Maybe that was where Klein, Agil and Lizbeth could help them, hold them off with a distraction, perhaps. Kirito and Asuna needed to grab hold of each other and teleport away pronto, somewhere that nobody would look to find them. Aincrad was a big place.

Thirdly, they needed to delete all their friends from their list and pretend they didn't even exist to the world. Maybe they could live on the 22nd floor near a lake surrounded by forests. Maybe there they could elope and live a life in tranquility and solitude, far, far away from where the evils of the world could touch them…

* * *

But some things are easier said than done.

Kirito had already lost track of the time they had been fighting when Asuna backed up against him, screamed and pointed.

"K-Kirito-kun, what's that?!"

The boss had thrown its head up and it was – out of all things – _wailing_. The sound it made seemed to echo and split the eardrums.

Kirito looked up sharply at the boss, his feet rooted to the ground. It was lucky the boss was not choosing to attack them at this moment because he figured himself unable to move even if he wanted to.

He had seen this kind of thing in a game before, just not in SAO. Before his eyes, the boss was transforming. Its hundred legs were knitting together to form just two bony limbs and the spine was growing out and forming a protective outer plate. The boss's weak point was no more.

For the first time in a long time, Kirito realised he had to refer back to prior game knowledge, before he had come into the world of SAO. They had just managed to take away half of the boss's HP. When a boss transformed mid-battle, it meant a third phase in the fight had started.

Phase three: the boss got harder. It was like the beginning of the fight all over again, only more intense. One couldn't predict what the boss did anymore; sometimes, they even went against their own habits.

With a sudden chill down his spine, Kirito thought: _was this going to happen with every boss from now on?_

"Look out!" he cried, noticing the monster throw its head back, as if about to breathe something on them. Intuition told him it was probably like a dragon now, able to breathe some kind of fire or other dangerous attack.

He was right: the boss hurled out spikes. Their sharp, glinting edges lodged into the ground around Kirito and Asuna, leaving them nowhere to run.

"What's going on?" Asuna demanded in fright. Her rapier was drawn, but she seemed to have absolutely no idea what to do with it.

As for Kirito, he had a bit of an idea, but not a lot to go on. He gritted his teeth. "Just keep dodging, Asuna. I'll figure something out. I have to – urk!"

A spike had hit him in the shoulder. Because he felt no pain, Kirito, plucked the spike out like it was nothing and motioned to throw it away.

"Wait!" Asuna exclaimed.

"What?"

They both ducked another onslaught of spikes. Kirito was still gripping the one that had hit him in the palm of his right hand.

"There's got to be a reason for this…!" Asuna insisted. "Why the spikes?"

Kirito paused at that. Why the spikes indeed?

The only thing he could think of was that it was to block them from running – which worked spectacularly, he realised, when he noticed the boss swinging one of its scythe arms viciously at them.

"Parry!" he yelled urgently, dropping the spike and taking out his second sword.

The two of them grunted in exertion as they pushed their blades against the scythe. It was definitely stronger than before. This time, they could barely hold it off and they could only stand still as The Skull Reaper hurled more spikes at them.

Their HP was diminishing fast. They had to do something – and fast. Otherwise, this phase of the boss battle would prove to be too much for them. How long had they been fighting for…?

"Kirito-kun! How high's your Throwing?"

She was talking about his skill level. Kirito just _looked _at her. "What?"

"I can't reach… can you throw the spike?"

"Where at?"

"Anywhere!"

The shrill quality of Asuna's voice told her that she was panicking too, despite her gruff demeanour. The boss was shuffling away and spitting spikes into another part of the room. It really was trying to fill up the place with them. Yes, it prevented them running circles around the boss but, as she implied, they were also weapons.

Kirito realised that they had only a matter of seconds before the boss turned its attention to them again. He picked up one of the spikes back off the ground in that moment and let the auto-aiming mechanism take over. The spike flew neatly into one of The Skull Reaper's eyes.

It went very still, but it also let out a completely inhuman roar.

_Yes…!_

"Throw another one, Kirito-kun!"

He did. The second spike lodged itself in one of the boss's left eyes. The monster convulsed and one of the scythes flew towards Asuna. She rolled to the side, choosing to dodge rather than to parry. "I'm all right!" she yelled out, when Kirito turned to look at her. "Throw another spike!"

Two more throws. He performed them while keeping an eye anxiously on Asuna, who, in her efforts to dodge, even walked on the spikes herself. Her HP was now in the yellow zone.

When Kirito threw the last spike, the monster did another strange thing. For one whole minute, the armour encasing its spine vanished.

"The weak spot's open again!" Kirito exclaimed.

Asuna promptly dashed over to it and unleashed her eight-hit Sword Skill combo. "I'm on it, Kirito-kun!"

As Asuna thrust away, the monster's arms were still swinging violently. Kirito made his way over to Asuna as the two blades seemed to close in on her. Holding out his two swords at his side, he attempted to block both scythes at once.

The pressure almost did his arm in. Kirito let out a gasp. Giving up on blocking, he ducked, pushing Asuna to the ground with him. Above him, the two scythes clashed against each other with a resounding clang. Kirito almost had to cover his ears.

Meanwhile, the armour had grown back again as the spikes dislodged from The Skull Reaper's eyes.

"Looks like we have to keep doing what we just did," Kirito said grimly. "Hit the eyes and then hit the spine while it's open."

… _and _they had to block the scythes, too. It was too much of a tall order, Kirito thought, but they would have to do this. They had no other choice.

He didn't know how long he and Asuna fought for. At that moment, it felt like the two of them had been fighting all their lives and knew of nothing different.

At the same time, he knew: They couldn't keep going on like this…

* * *

"It's been an hour already," said Lizbeth. Her chest, when she put her hand against it, was thumping quickly, even though she hadn't moved an inch since the battle had started. "Oh gosh I hope they're okay in there… You don't think…?"

"They're still alive," Agil said as he perused his menu. His hand hovered above Kirito's green-lit name. "I can't believe it, but they're still fighting…"

For the last half hour, Klein had not moved from where he stood at all, his fist still pushed against the wall and his head still down. He was frowning as he had never frowned before, an expression that hardly suited his easy-going face.

"That's it," he said suddenly. "I can't stand this anymore."

"Klein-san, what are you-?!" Lizbeth began, as Klein stomped his way across the floor and directly towards Heathcliff.

Heathcliff simply regarded Klein expressionlessly.

"Let me in!" Klein demanded crossly.

"It's dangerous," Heathcliff said shortly.

"Do I look like I give a damn?" Klein swept his arm towards the boss room door. "I'm not in your guild, so you can let me in! Stop having your lackeys block the way!"

He was pointing towards several senior members of the KoB, who were standing in front of the door with their spears and shields raised, as if in warning.

"You're such bastards!" Klein roared. "Those are my friends in there! Kirito promised me he'd live and I'll do anything to let him keep that promise!"

Heathcliff said nothing. He simply made a signal with his hand.

At that, two KoB members grabbed Klein from behind, restraining him. Klein struggled, but it was useless. The two men had a higher strength stat than he did.

"Klein-san!" Lizbeth called out in concern.

"Idiot," said Agil, looking worried.

Heathcliff was looking at Klein with cold eyes, as if holding the younger and more impetuous man spellbound with his gaze. For a moment, Klein thought that Heathcliff would hit him. Then the Paladin turned his head towards the door.

"Actually, I was planning to break in around now," he said, in very deliberate tones. "Those two have surely broken down the boss's defences."

Klein instantly saw what was going to happen. Heathcliff wanted to break in after Kirito and Asuna had weakened the boss, kill it and get the Last Attack bonus.

In that moment, fury magnified Klein's strength far more than stats could. He broke free from the two men holding him and, throwing his arm back, he threw a punch square at Heathcliff's face.

"No way!" Agil exclaimed.

Lizbeth gasped and held he hands to her face.

Heathcliff brought up his shield and effortlessly deflected Klein's punch.

"Save that kind of energy for the boss," he said coldly. Then, with a swish of his cape, he pointed his sword towards the door. "Open the door! Fight!"


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15**

Right from the first day, or even before then, Kirito was used to fighting alone.

This was what he made himself remember as he swung his dual blades at the boss, even as the fatigue in his arms made the swords feel artificially heavier than what they were meant to be. He tried not to focus his mind on it.

_Please, please, please_, he repeated to himself, like a mantra. The words were directed towards his body. He had to keep going.

He couldn't stop. Whoever he had been in the beginning, he was Kirito the Black Swordsman now, and fighting monsters was all that he was ever good for.

"Kirito-kun!" Somewhere, he could hear Asuna calling out to him. "Look at your HP bar, will you?!"

Kirito blinked. Without him even noticing, his HP bar had gone into the red zone. "Th-Thanks, Asuna." He stood back and quickly used a health crystal. As he did, he noted with alarm that he had just used the last one.

The boss still had one full HP bar…

"Asuna…!" He turned to face his companion, his eyes wide.

They stood back-to-back, blocking off the boss's attacks together, and he heard Asuna make a "Tch!" sound behind him. "This is just like last time."

"Asuna, you have to run…"

"Where to, Kirito-kun?" she demanded. "Tell me that."

Kirito could not respond. There was no answer, after all – if he was doomed, then so was she.

The truth was that he was not alone at all. It should have comforted him, but Kirito could only feel depressed, as if the presence of someone else in his heart placed a weight in there.

"I couldn't protect you, Asuna…"

"And I couldn't protect you, either, Kirito-kun."

She lowered her sword at that moment.

"Maybe it's better like this," she said softly.

"Look out!" Kirito yelled out urgently, pushing her to the ground to avoid the monster's scythe. His heart was in his mouth, thumping in pure fright. "Don't talk like that, Asuna!"

The fatigue was getting to Asuna, he could see, and it was making her say things she would not have otherwise said. She turned her head feebly to the side and Kirito could see her face was drained of almost all colour.

"You were always pretty obsessed with survival right from the beginning, right, Kirito-kun? But me, I just… I didn't care whether I died so… you can leave me alone. You don't have to feel guilty…"

"Shut up!"

Asuna flinched.

Kirito knew as well as Asuna did that victory had slipped beyond their grasp. "We have to keep fighting, Asuna." Grabbing her tightly, he dragged her as he rolled to the side. Behind him, he heard the sound of the scythe slicing through the air where they had just been. "Come on, Asuna, you have to… I want to see my sister again and I want to-" He gulped. Asuna wasn't moving. "_Come on!_"

That jolted Asuna. "Kirito-kun, I don't know what came over me…"

He knew. It was the guilt over killing someone, it was the pressure of being a frontliner, it was all the expectations piling up and turning out to be too much at once. He knew. He'd been through it all before.

"Stay here, Asuna."

"Kirito-kun, you're not planning to… solo the boss?!"

Kirito said nothing. He just gripped his two swords harder and charged.

He could feel the blood pumping through his veins with renewed adrenaline. Kirito knew what he needed to do. He was a Solo Player; and he had been that way from the beginning.

But just because he was a Solo Player didn't mean he was alone.

Pausing only to apply the Potion of Invulnerability, Kirito launched himself directly at the boss. He swung his swords all around him in a frenzy, not caring where his blows landed.

Asuna could only sit on the ground and watch with her jaw slacked and her eyes wide.

"Kirito-kun!"

But Kirito was no longer listening. Everything besides him and the boss had faded away to nothing more but dull static. He slashed the boss like it was the only thing he could do, listening to its bloodcurdling roars and delving even deeper into a world only he was part of.

When finally, the effects of the potion wore off, Kirito was panting. His fist curled tightly around Ragnarok – he had seen Lizbeth's sword do most of the damage. She would be proud of him. If he saw her again, he would thank her.

"More," he said quietly to himself. "I need more."

Yet it was as if his legs were no longer under his control. The sluggishness hit him like a slap in the face and he could only struggle against it. He willed himself to move, but his body was still as The Skull Reaper rained spikes on him.

If only he had a little more strength, he thought. Then he could have won.

"Get back!" Asuna said agitatedly, yanking on his arm.

Kirito blinked and turned his head to look at her with an abstracted gaze. Everything in his vision had become blurred abruptly. His lips moved with effort, trying to say her name.

In the end, he couldn't manage it. Kirito closed his eyes.

* * *

He was dreaming, and that was a strange thing. People didn't dream in SAO – in fact, Kirito had almost forgotten how it felt to dream altogether.

He was certain now that he was dreaming, though. The Skull Reaper haunted him even in his dreams and, raising its bony arms, the monster brought its blades down upon his friends. Sachi was the first to go – _of course_, Kirito thought, as he was rooted to the spot – and then she was followed by Klein, Agil, Silica and, finally, Asuna.

Their eyes were upon Kirito as the blades sunk into their bodies. _This is all your fault_, they seemed to say. _Why were you such a coward?_

Kirito did not speak in his dream. It was a world of darkness and utter silence. He reached out his arms frantically and tried to catch his friends as they fell, but when he touched them, they vanished into polygon shards.

He fell to his knees then, his hands shaking.

* * *

Kirito woke up.

It took him a moment to recognise where he was, but the familiarity of the quaint and simple living room hit him soon enough. It was the second floor of Agil's shop.

"Ah, looks like you're awake," said Agil, who was standing by the bedside with his arms crossed. Kirito knew him well enough to know that he was more worried than his nonchalantly gruff demeanour let on.

"What… happened?" Kirito asked groggily, sitting up in the bed.

"Long story," said Agil with a chuckle. "Asuna's downstairs," he added, noticing Kirito was looking around frantically.

Kirito sighed and let go of the sheets he didn't know he had been holding so tightly.

"What happened to the boss?" he asked.

Agil explained. "Asuna said she was about to finish it off for you when Heathcliff and the KoB came in and killed it. They were about to take you guys off back to your cell when Lizbeth did some quick thinking and used a teleport crystal."

"Take us back to our cells…?" Kirito frowned. "Why would they want to do that?"

"Here's the thing," said Agil uneasily. He explained what Heathcliff's scheme was. "I don't know what Heathcliff's thinking. He doesn't seem to be himself. I always thought he was at least _fair_, you know."

"Heathcliff's ruthlessly obsessed with clearing," Kirito said. "It makes sense."

It was not something he _liked _about Heathcliff, but it was something he could respect, even now.

"But what about Asuna?" he asked anxiously. "Does he want to do the same to her?"

Agil nodded.

It felt like something in Kirito's chest constricted and for a moment, he could hardly breathe. "I can't let that happen," he said firmly.

"That's what the others are talking about downstairs," Agil replied. He turned his head left and right before looking down back at Kirito. "Listen, your only chance is to take her and run. We'll back you up."

Kirito stared blankly at the sheets in front of him when he heard that.

"Kirito?" Agil spoke his name questioningly.

Quickly, Kirito slid out of the bed.

"I'm going to talk to Asuna," he announced.

As he said that, the door opened and Asuna, Lizbeth and Klein walked inside the room.

"Oh, hey!" Lizbeth said, waving. "Glad to see you're okay, Kirito-kun!"

"Yeah," said Kirito, somewhat noncommittally.

Gingerly, Asuna made her way to Kirito and sat down beside him. "You were pretty good back there, Kirito-kun."

Kirito looked away shamefacedly. Now that Asuna was right in front of him, all the words had dried from his lips. Having failed to protect her properly, he had no idea how to face her.

"What are you looking so sad about?" Klein asked. "You're alive, aren't you?"

"I… yeah," said Kirito, a little awkwardly. Trust Klein to state obvious in such a way that it didn't feel hackneyed so much as it felt like an easy-going reminder. He smiled weakly.

"Silly, Kirito-kun," said Asuna with a small laugh. "You don't have to blame yourself for everything."

Asuna really was one to talk, but Kirito didn't mention that. "What do you think of Heathcliff?" he asked seriously.

Just like that, Asuna's smile faded and she just looked down at the floor. Heathcliff had betrayed her; that much was obvious. "Well, somehow I think he wanted to spare my life," she said quietly. "That's why he's forcing me to go with you. That's what I think. You were out cold, Kirito-kun, but that's the impression I got when he looked at me. I don't know." She sighed.

Kirito knew that Asuna looked up to Heathcliff. But as an outcast, she could not expect any direct help from him. So stepping into the fight and finishing it for them while they were both still alive was, in a way, an act of kindness from him – as much as he could permit as guild leader. But he was still fixated on helping out his own guild above them; that much was obvious.

"I can't let this keep happening to you," he insisted.

She looked sideways at him. "So are we going to keep hiding like this?"

He hesitated.

"No one's holding it against you if you run," Lizbeth said.

"We'll back you up no matter what you do," Agil said.

"Yeah, we're supporting you," Klein interjected. "If it's to survive…"

Kirito said nothing to that. He closed his eyes, and he thought.

He'd abandoned Klein on the very first day. The panic was setting in over the first floor and he ran from him then, exchanging no promises and only tightly-held regrets. He had played SAO like he had played every MMORPG before then – as a Solo Player, interacting with others only when he needed to. It was fine, he told himself, it was perfectly fine: he was just trying to survive.

The first time he met Agil was on the frontlines. They didn't really talk much in those days, even though they did the same job. At some point, Agil developed his passion for being a merchant, and Kirito did business with him because he was the only player merchant at the time that could cater his items for other frontliners.

"You know," said Agil, the first time Kirito bought from him, "you shouldn't look so miserable when you're in a shop."

"Huh?" said Kirito, more surprised than offended. "Do I look miserable?"

It was probably a little pathetic to admit this to himself, but even in real life, he found it awkward when he ordered things at a store.

"Just a bit." Agil smiled. "Chin up, kid. Game world or not, you only live once."

Agil didn't blame Kirito for being a Solo Player; that much he could see. Out of necessity, but also out of desire for human company, Kirito became a regular at Agil's shop. He didn't know when he became able to talk to Agil normally, but now he was definitely a friend, just as much as Klein was.

Then there was Lizbeth, who regularly stayed up all night and day to make equipment for him, and Asuna, who had teamed up with him on the 74th floor and who had gone to such desperate lengths to save him.

Did he deserve such friends? Would he have done the same for them if they were held prisoner?

Kirito didn't know.

But what he did say eventually was this:

"I'm not going to run."

"Kirito-kun!" Lizbeth exclaimed indignantly. "Don't be stupid! You're not going to keep fighting bosses until you die, are you?!"

"I'm not going to let any of you die." Kirito stood up. "I'm going to see Heathcliff and make him stop sending you into the frontlines like this."

"What? How?" Asuna demanded.

Kirito turned to his friends, noticing with a twinge how confused and anxious their expressions were. It was strange. Though he forced himself to be calm for them, now he could feel a sense of tranquility descend on him. Ah, it was probably because he knew exactly what he wanted to do now. It felt right.

"I'm going to fight him," he announced firmly.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's note: **Lots of deviations from the canon here – they're small changes, but they really add up, to the extent I think this climax has quite a different feel from the original. There's nothing I want to comment on in particular because I think everything turned out pretty straightforward. Without further ado:

**Chapter 16**

The transformation was startling. The coliseum on the 75th floor had been almost deserted the last time Asuna had visited it, but today it was a veritable hive of activity. Frontliners and lower-level players alike filled up the stands, and vendors stood outside the venue, selling popcorn and snacks. There was hardly a familiar face in sight, something which caused Asuna to be taken aback. Then again, it made sense: the two strongest players in Aincrad were having a duel, and a PvP match was not a common event in SAO. Asuna supposed it just went to show that despite the aim of the game being teamwork, there was something irresistible about conflict. It surprised her how readily Heathcliff had accepted the duel, as if he had just been waiting for Kirito to approach and challenge him from the beginning.

Honestly, what were those two thinking? Asuna thought to herself as she waited outside the dressing room for Kirito. Heathcliff she could almost understand – he was as inscrutable as ever, but Kirito…

Kirito wanted to protect her. The conditions of the duel were simple yet undisclosed to the public: if Kirito won, then he and Asuna would no longer have to fight the bosses first, but if Heathcliff won, there could be no running away from the frontlines. Everything was staked on the one fight. They were cornered, but Kirito was not giving in without a fight. She supposed she admired that part about him.

But as for whether he could win…

She slapped her cheeks firmly. No, she was not going to think like that. It was no use comparing Kirito with Heathcliff – they were far too different. It was strange for her sometimes, seeing them in the same room. They were like two elements at odds with each other; one did not belong where the other was.

The door creaked open behind Asuna. "Asuna? You're still waiting for me?" Kirito stood behind her, dressed in his same black coat as always. (It wouldn't be too hard trying to figure out what kind of clothes to buy him for Christmas, Asuna thought with an inward snort.) Kirito sheathed Lizbeth's Ragnarok in the scabbard strapped to his back; evidently, he had just been examining it.

"Yeah, I'm here," said Asuna quietly. "How do you feel right now, Kirito-kun?"

"A little nervous," Kirito admitted. He smiled sheepishly. "Well, a lot, actually. There's no use worrying about that now, though. Heathcliff doesn't have any weaknesses, does he?"

Asuna shook her head. For all the endless months she had fought beside him, she had never once seen him so much as stumble. "But Kirito-kun, I have faith in you."

"Thanks, Asuna."

He stood there by the door, his head burrowed in contemplation. "I've been thinking," he said slowly. "About Heathcliff, he's very good at fighting mobs, kind of… mechanical, don't you think?"

Asuna supposed so, when she thought about it. "What are you getting at?"

"Nothing, I guess," said Kirito, somewhat evasively. "Anyway, that's not what I want to talk about to you."

She was faintly puzzled. "What, then?"

"I just wanted to say thanks," he said. "For everything."

Asuna smiled. Since coming out of the dungeon of the 75th floor together with Kirito, she couldn't help but notice the quiet aura of confidence around him. She wondered if he knew what kind of effect he had on her.

"It's fine," she told him with a shrug. "We're friends, aren't we?"

Actually, to her, Kirito was much more than a friend, but admitting these feelings… that would only be a distraction to them both.

"Asuna, even if I lose, I still want to protect you."

"Don't talk about losing!" Asuna said hastily.

But Kirito just smiled.

"Even if I won, I'd still think the same. No matter what, I guess."

Asuna's heart fluttered in her chest. "Huh? Kirito-kun, you mean…?"

"Well, um," said Kirito awkwardly as he scratched his cheek. "Guess I'd better go now."

"Hold it right there!" Asuna clamped her hand down on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. "Aren't you going to wait to hear my response?"

"What response? Y-You don't have to say anything…"

He gulped. From the look on his face, Asuna was probably glaring daggers at him. Serves him right, she thought.

"I want to protect you too," she said firmly. "Now stop looking so distracted!"

"I'm not distracted."

Asuna blinked, surprised. The way Kirito looked at her now was indeed void of any kind of distraction. It was like she was the only person in the world.

"I'll defeat Heathcliff," he said. "And then… And then…"

"Then what?" she asked breathlessly as Kirito drew closer to her.

In response, he reached his hands out and cupped her cheeks.

"Can I?" he asked, bringing his head closer.

Asuna nodded mutely.

The moment when Kirito connected their lips was probably the sweetest moment she had ever known in SAO. No, she realised, in her _life_. He kissed her clumsily, and yet he was gentle in his earnestness. His lips were soft and warm, and his ginger touch made her tingle inside. When he drew back, blushing furiously, she wanted to grab hold of him and make him stay with her forever. Instead, she giggled.

"You need to level up your kissing stat, Kirito-kun!"

"Sh-Shut up!"

He covered his mouth, looking sideways at her embarrassedly. _After the battle, _he promised her silently.

Asuna just nodded at that. She was satisfied.

_Okay_.

* * *

Heathcliff was already waiting in the middle of the arena for Kirito. Kirito didn't know how long the older man had been standing there, but he could have been a statue for how thoroughly immovable he was.

"Good luck," Asuna whispered to him, squeezing his hand. He was about to emerge out of the corridor and into the crowd's view. In spite of himself, Kirito smiled. Asuna's support gave him more courage than he could ever hope for.

Letting go of Asuna's hand, Kirito attempted to summon his thoughts together. He had a plan on how to tackle Heathcliff – a vague plan, admittedly, but at least he had one. He had heard Heathcliff's HP had never even gone into the yellow zone before. How much truth there lay in that was something he would discover today.

Before sending his notice of challenge to Heathcliff, Kirito practiced duelling with Asuna, Klein and Agil. Fighting the three of them one-on-one made him realise something: people fought differently against players than they did with monsters. Yes, there were the obvious things like the attempted feints and the Sword Skills that worked better on monsters than on humans and vice versa, but in the end, it came down to the subtle things. A player really _watched _you and because of that, their actions took on small tics that were beyond programming. If Kirito led out in the battle, then he could, in theory, manipulate Heathcliff's perfect defence. There was really no other way he could fight. Being a dual swords user, offence was his only defence.

This was all well and good, and Heathcliff sounded like a truly formidable foe, but challenging him took about half as much courage from Kirito as confessing to Asuna, so he figured he could do anything about now. So he just laughed when Asuna encouraged him.

"I'll be right back," he said, grinning.

She rolled her eyes. "Don't get cocky! Now stop dawdling and fight." With that, she pushed him into the open.

All eyes in the crowd were upon him. Hundreds of people had turned up – it was like the entire population of Aincrad had come to watch him. He couldn't even spot his friends in the crowd. Just like that, Kirito felt very small indeed. _Thank you for deserting me, confidence._

He tried to stand firm as he made his way over to Heathcliff, who nodded coolly at him. It was a First Strike duel, which meant whoever got the first direct attack in would win outright. Attacks that grazed the other player but did not hit cleanly did not count as a First Strike, but the duel would automatically end if one of the players' HP fell below half their counter. Dying wasn't common in these kinds of duels, but if Heathcliff scored a strong critical hit when Kirito was close to half HP, he would probably die inadvertently. There was an element of risk to it, and Kirito was fully aware that he had placed his life on the line.

"Are you ready?" Heathcliff asked him.

There was, at least, nothing patronising in his tone. "Yes," responded Kirito, nodding. He was as ready as he would ever be.

"Good," said Heathcliff as he assumed his stance. Kirito noted Heathcliff's large red shield that was almost big enough to cover his entire body. It looked like such a heavy, clunky object, but Heathcliff held it with no encumbrance whatsoever. Kirito had to envy him for that. Even though strength was decided by level rather than body size, Kirito was sure he would stumble trying to carry something so large. He had never been good with shields, even at the start of the game when they were a necessity.

The countdown to the fight began and Kirito drew out his swords in anticipation. He tried to read Heathcliff's stance for an indication of what skill he would use, but the Paladin's body language was just too ambiguous. It didn't matter, Kirito decided. He would make the first attack anyway.

The signal for the match to start rang out and Kirito dashed forward, slashing his blades in a crossing motion. It was an ideal opening move for offence and defence. Kirito didn't seriously expect to get the edge in so early and was not surprised when Heathcliff blocked the attack with his shield. Metal clashed against metal, ringing out jarringly. Kirito attempted an uppercut next, but Heathcliff wasn't just capable of parrying with his shield. His sword snaked across rapidly, denying Kirito an opening. Gritting his teeth, Kirito retreated momentarily, trying to appraise his next move.

The one thing he could not afford to do was let his berserker instincts kick in.

When Kirito had practised with Klein, he was surprised by how easily his friend had kept up with him. Klein, it turned out, had quite a lot of experience in duelling; it was a common pastime in the Fuurinkazan guild.

"You have to keep a straight head," Klein had warned him. "If you're mad, you might be faster, but people can tell what you're doing, you know?"

Kirito thought it was ironic to hear Klein of all people telling him to fight with strategy, but he did have a point. When Kirito had fought Kuradeel, it was his anger and overconfidence that made his movements easy to predict. Klein was actually very good at fighting, to the extent that he could score a few hits on Kirito even with his lower dexterity stat. That had been an important lesson for Kirito – it wasn't the stats that decided the duel.

But either way, Kirito noted grimly, Heathcliff had the advantage. Kirito's dual swords were unwieldy at close range, and both his swords were shorter than Heathcliff's long sword. (What type of sword it was Kirito did not know; he had never seen it before.) When Heathcliff slashed at Kirito with one smooth motion, Kirito had to scramble as he cross his swords to block. His finely-honed reflexes after years of playing real-time action games, was the only thing that saved him.

From then on, Heathcliff's firm sword strokes dictated the duel. Heathcliff didn't waste a single movement and Kirito was constantly on the back foot. At least he wasn't getting hit, but it was a small comfort.

He gulped. Sooner or later, he would have to make a mistake. Heathcliff was not the erring type. Kirito would have to take a risk now, while he still had the capacity to.

Skipping back briefly out of range, Kirito then jumped into the air, as if about to unleash one of his Sword Skills. As he expected, Heathcliff whipped out his shield. Kirito changed the angle of his sword and turned it into a basic Thrust skill. Heathcliff was clearly startled…

… but he still managed to sidestep the attack and graze Kirito on the shoulder with his blade.

_Damn._

But it was not over yet. As Kirito landed, he slashed with both of his swords. One was aimed at Heathcliff's left arm, the other towards his leg. Heathcliff blocked the attack aimed at his side, but Kirito was satisfied when he managed to nick the Paladin on the leg before he stepped away. The duel was still more or less even.

It went on. Now that Kirito had found his rhythm, he was no longer on the back foot, though Heathcliff still had the tactical advantage. Soon, Kirito found himself forgetting that there was even anyone watching him. He wondered why he hadn't bothered trying to battle Heathcliff before. It gave him that same mesmerising feeling as fighting the final boss in an RPG…

Before they knew it, they were both down to almost half their HP.

That was when something strange started to happen. Instead of slowing down as the battle wore on, Heathcliff got faster – too fast. Kirito struck at him with Ragnarok but when his sword was halfway to reaching him, it felt like it bounced off an invisible barrier. Kirito blinked, startled, and that was the time Heathcliff needed.

A swift uppercut and Kirito was sent hurtling backwards. He fell to the ground on his bottom with a dull thud.

In the blink of an eye, he had lost.

For a whole minute, Kirito was numb, not even hearing the roar of the crowd. _Oh god what did this mean…_

When he looked up, all he could see was the Paladin looking down with heavy-set eyebrows and uncharacteristic fury, like an angry god… Heathcliff swept himself around and turned away, leaving Kirito alone on the ground.

"Hold it!" a voice rang out across the arena, stopping Heathcliff in his tracks.

Asuna was running into the arena. "Asuna!" Kirito spluttered. "What are you-?!"

For the moment, Asuna ignored him entirely. "I saw that, Commander Heathcliff," she said strongly to the man whose back was turned to her. "Don't think I wasn't watching! That couldn't have been a legal move what you just did!"

"What are you saying, Asuna?" Heathcliff asked evenly, still not turning around to look at her.

The crowd suddenly went totally quiet, almost eerily so. _Heathcliff being accused of cheating?_

_By a red player?_

"That's right," said Asuna decidedly. "You noticed it too, didn't you, Kirito-kun?"

Kirito nodded at that. Asuna had to be a pretty keen observer to notice something Kirito had only been barely cognisant of himself. In the end, it just confirmed something he had been thinking of for a while. "If my Unique Skill was given to me by Kayaba, then who gave Heathcliff his skill?"

Asuna frowned. "Kirito-kun, what are you implying?" It seemed she hadn't yet made all the connections.

"I'm saying," Kirito said through gritted teeth, "that Heathcliff's skill was a gift from Kayaba too!"

Now that he had uttered this thought aloud in the open air, it sounded even more preposterous than it did in his head.

"Interesting," said Heathcliff, now turning around to face Kirito. He was calm – Kirito couldn't tell if he was trying to suppress his indignation or not. "Explain yourself."

Kirito explained, somewhat shakily:

"When Kayaba visited me, it occurred to me from what he said that he wouldn't make a game like this and not play it himself. At the same time, I don't think Heathcliff is Kayaba – at least, not all the time."

He could see Asuna was both stunned and confused. For a moment, she was speechless. "What do you mean, Kirito-kun?" she asked finally.

"You probably wouldn't understand since SAO is your first MMO, but… if you could Godmod a game or use cheats, you'd probably make yourself the strongest. That's natural. But any player who's ever tried that knows that it gets boring after a while – it's too easy. The game just wouldn't feel _real _anymore.

"Heathcliff seems emotionless and overly powerful a lot of the time because he's one of probably multiple accounts Kayaba has in the game. I don't know who else he must play as, but when he's not playing as Heathcliff, his character's probably programmed to take the most pragmatic route to clearing the game. That's why what he does is contradictory sometimes. Kayaba wants to send us alone into boss fights but Heathcliff would think that's a risky idea."

"And who is he right now?" Asuna asked, gazing apprehensively at Heathcliff's impassive features.

Kirito looked at the Paladin directly in the eyes.

"You wanted to fight me and you have. Now do it fairly, Kayaba!"

There was a long, pregnant pause. Heathcliff's expression was so blank that for a horrible, sickening moment, Kirito thought he had guessed everything wrongly.

Then Heathcliff smiled.

"Well done, Kirito. Your logic never ceases to amaze me."

A collective gasp rose up in the stands. Several players stood up abruptly, holding their weapons. Heathcliff – no, _Kayaba_ – opened up his menu and pressed a button. When the players tried to jump into the arena, they were met by what was evidently an invisible wall.

Kirito and Asuna were trapped with Kayaba Akihiko.

Panic rose in Kirito's throat but he fought it down. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say that the panic itself was short-lived. This was just like that incident in the cell, only this time, everyone was watching.

"Are you sure you want to end everything here and now?" Kayaba asked suddenly. More and more, his Heathcliff persona was starting to resemble that mild-mannered hologram in the cell. It was all in the eyes, those tired grey eyes.

"What do you mean?" Kirito demanded.

"You're right that this is not my only account," Kayaba explained smoothly. "But the death penalty of taking off the Nerve Gear does not apply to me, so I've been able to log out at my leisure."

To that, Kirito said nothing.

"I know what your lives are like in the real world. My question is this: do you want to risk dying trying to change that?"

"The real world…" Asuna murmured.

Truthfully, Kirito had barely even thought of what was going on there. He wanted to return, but that was because he wanted to survive full stop. What type of life he would be returning to was something he had never considered.

"You are all living in hospitals," Kayaba intoned. "You are barely clinging to life. All of you have lost two years of your lives. If you wake, there is no guarantee that your physiotherapy will be successful or that you will be able to live normal, independent lives. Is that truly the reality you wish to return to…?"

This could be a lie, Kirito thought, but there was logically no reason to doubt him. If wearing the Nerve Gear left you comatose, then it really was no surprise that his real body was somewhere in a hospital, pale, emaciated and probably unrecognisable to him. Simply the thought of it made Kirito sick in the stomach.

"I was planning to reveal myself on the 95th floor and become the final boss on the 100th," Kayaba went on. "But you may as well make the choice here. Kirito, do you wish to destroy this world?"

_Destroy the world…?_

Put that way, it was something no protagonist in a video game would ever attempt.

Kirito took a step back, unable to stop the sinking sensations in his stomach. The image of his comatose self was starting to blur with his own familiar reflection in his mind's eye.

Asuna shook him. "Kirito-kun, what's wrong? We have to fight him!"

But Kirito could not answer her. "Will Aincrad really be gone forever?" he asked Kayaba. His voice sounded reedy to him, almost pained.

"Of course," Kayaba answered promptly. "If you defeat me, all the game's data will be deleted from the server and your minds will return to your bodies."

"That's good, isn't it?" Asuna interrupted. "Come on, Kirito-kun!"

"Asuna, I…"

She turned around then, staring puzzled at the hesitation on his features. "Kirito-kun, I thought…" Her eyes slowly went wide, as if detecting betrayal in his eyes. "I thought you said you wanted to go back with me, that we had to survive, that you'd protect me and…!"

"Yeah," he said, looking down.

"Kirito-kun, that wasn't a lie, was it…?"

Her voice was pleading. So were her eyes, probably. Kirito wasn't looking at them.

"None of that was a lie, Asuna."

"Then why don't you sound certain?" Her voice was starting to rise in pitch. "Kirito-kun, look at me!"

He wanted to survive. He wanted to protect his friends.

But…

It was a thought, unbidden, that he had refused to entertain for those two years. He had lived his life on the edge and succeeded at the game. Now that the threat of losing his life was not such a looming matter, he had been able to take each day as it came in SAO, even eke out a living somewhat. It was a luxury of life that he had never envisioned on that first day, but here it was, and it was as tangible as the Nerve Gears themselves. No matter what kind of madness, people could adapt.

That was the frightening thing.

"…Asuna, what if life is better in here?"

"No, you can't be saying that…"

"Kayaba's probably right, you know." Kirito motioned towards Kayaba, who was watching the scene with mild curiosity and even amusement. "The lives we left behind in the real world… there's no guarantee if we return, we'll be happy or even healthy…"

"But that's… that's no excuse…!"

"Asuna, I…" Kirito gulped. "I left that world for here because I… because I wanted to escape. I…" He looked away shamefacedly. The words were hard to form in his mouth but he could not stop them leaving. "I feel more alive here than I did over there…"

Because it was real, he thought. Death was what made SAO so awful and yet so real. Kayaba had made him realise that.

He knew that Asuna probably hated him now for admitting that.

Right now, she wasn't saying anything.

"Asuna…?" He looked up hesitantly. Asuna's head was down, her hands clenched by her sides, totally unmoving. Kirito's mouth went dry. He thought he had connected with her, but now he had no idea what she was thinking.

"Kirito-kun, I think I understand how you feel."

"Huh?" He was taken aback. "You do?"

She nodded. "I haven't really told you about my real life but… there are lots of things I can do here that I can't there. And it feels like I've lived here all my life, honestly. Still…"

She didn't finish the sentence. Her voice trailed off into heavy silence.

Kirito still could not bring himself to say anything.

He was surprised when Asuna threw her arms around him emphatically.

"You're hesitating, Kirito-kun. This isn't like you. You've been so brave for me – you didn't run from Heathcliff or the boss – so, I know, I know I can _trust _you…"

"Asuna…"

She made him feel braver than what he actually was. Ah, but maybe that was real too. Kirito could no longer really say how he felt, exactly.

He just didn't want to see Asuna cry.

"You're right," Kirito said firmly, taking her by the shoulders. "I've been selfish, right from the first day of SAO. I'm sorry, Asuna."

"Does that mean you're…?"

"I've made my decision," Kirito said, turning to Kayaba with a decisive nod.

Kayaba smiled thinly. "And that is…?"

"I'm going to fight you."

Kayaba's eyebrows lifted. Somewhere in the audience, Kirito could hear the distinct sounds of Klein and Agil cheering, along with Silica and Lizbeth.

_Pfft. Those guys._

"Very well then," Kirito heard Kayaba say. "It will be a fair duel. If you die, you die, and if you win, this world will end." He unsheathed his sword. "Are you ready, Kirito?"

Kirito readied his stance. "I've been looking forward to this showdown for a while, Kayaba."

He smiled genuinely. "Same here."

* * *

Earlier, when Kirito first announced that he would fight Heathcliff, his friends glanced at each other meaningfully. Wasn't that a preposterous idea?

But at the same time, they understood. "You've really changed, Kirito," Klein remarked with a grin. "I mean, wow, talk about a real hero!"

"I don't get it," said Kirito, feeling extremely nonplussed.

That was when Klein slapped him good-naturedly on the back, chuckling as he did so.

"Listen, Kirito. If I were ever mad about you leaving me at the Town of Beginnings – which I wasn't, mind you – I definitely wouldn't be mad anymore. Consider yourself forgiven, champ. I'm behind you every stop of the way!"

Kirito had always thought that deep down Klein had always resented him for what he had done that day. Stupidly, irrationally, Kirito had convinced himself that Klein's loyalty to him was out of vindication somehow, to prove that he was what Kirito could never be. The worst part was that Klein had never blamed Kirito for anything. If anything, it was Klein who deserved to be the hero of this RPG, to take down the final boss by his own hand.

Or maybe he was just too good for labels.

"I'm kinda sorry about being awkward with you," Kirito admitted sheepishly. "It's not because I didn't like you…"

"Oh, hey, I get it," said Klein casually. "Don't worry about it. Tell you what – when we get back to the real world, you can shout me out for pizza. Then we'll call it even, okay?"

Kirito smiled. "Okay."

Perhaps, in the end, it was best not to overcomplicate matters in his head. He did have a tendency to do that.

Kirito laughed and told his friends his real name. He was going to see them again. He would, he would.

* * *

Kayaba had made Asuna stand out of the arena as he battled Kirito. She clenched her hands and held them close to her chest as she watched the two swordsmen close in rapidly on each other.

She muttered to herself, in an endless litany: "Come on, Kirigaya Kazuto-kun. I believe in you…"

* * *

Steel clashed upon steel. Sweat flew off Kirito's face as he blocked Kayaba's sword with effort. Kayaba may have disabled his invulnerability, but his strength and speed were unchanged. No, actually, he was even _more _powerful.

Kirito gritted his teeth and pushed on.

Kayaba was different when he was not Heathcliff. His sword strokes were not as mechanical or measured, though his consummate skill showed through anyway. Years and years of exposure to games had to have made him the fighter who he was. He fought like no one Kirito had ever seen and yet every attack of his was polished perfection. Because he had personally designed every Sword Skill in the game, none of Kirito's abilities seemed to work on him.

At that point, Kirito realised that all his practice duelling against his friends was moot. This was something that went beyond levels.

From here on out, he would have to make up his own Sword Skills.

He ceased to think. His body moved on its own, responding to Kayaba's movements like a dance partner. It was as if he was watching his body from above. Time lost all meaning to him and through the narrow glare of his concentration, all he could see were their swords flashing like blurs in their descent. They were moving so quickly that they left afterimages behind them.

Kirito fought like it was the only thing he was capable of doing. His swords moved swiftly, both to attack and to defend. Neither side held any quarter. Any mistake on either end would have led to instant death; of that, Kirito was certain. And yet at the same time, knowing that he felt oddly calm.

He fought for the sake of destroying the world.

"I'm glad I could fight you like this," Kayaba said to Kirito, panting slightly. "You're as strong as I imagined."

Kirito was panting too, but he didn't pause to wipe the sweat off his face as he swung his swords. The sweat disappeared on its own accord anyway.

"Same to you, Kayaba."

"All my life, I'd been waiting for this," Kayaba went on, somewhat reflectively.

"For someone to match you?"

Kirito's Ragnarok clashed against Kayaba's red shield with a resounding clang. The two of them winced at the force, which was stronger than expected.

"Right," Kayaba said. "It's not a game otherwise…"

Had Kayaba made this world just for the sake of meeting his one match out of ten thousand? Perhaps so.

There really was nothing that could match this feeling.

"Ah," Kayaba said wistfully. "I really am having fun. For the first time since I finished making this game, even…"

Four thousand dead, the rest in hospital, and Kayaba could only say this now?

Kirito frowned. This man was a monster.

"If you die," Kayaba said suddenly, matching Kirito's furious sword strike, "I think I'll return everyone to their bodies anyway."

"What?"

"I think I've had enough," said Kayaba, and with that, he struck at the sword in Kirito's right hand, sending it spinning out of his grasp.

Before Kirito's eyes, his sword disintegrated into polygons and was gone.

"How was it?" Kayaba asked, his eyes gleaming. "That was my Holy Blade skill. It can destroy any weapon."

Kirito jerked backwards, only able to grunt in reply. His fingers clenched tighter around Ragnarok, his only remaining weapon.

"It's hopeless, Kirito. But it was fun while it lasted."

"No!" Kirito gasped. He did not want to die, not yet. "I won't lose!"

Kayaba only eyed Kirito with faint disappointment as Kirito swung Ragnarok desperately.

"Ah, you're getting sloppier. I guess you've already hit your peak."

"Shut up!"

With a ferocious snarl, Kirito twirled around and hacked savagely at Kayaba with his blade, but the creator of SAO could read his moves before they came. He blocked Kirito's attack with his shield and bent his knees, preparing his own strike.

"Holy Blade!"

Kirito was not fast enough to dodge. With a choked gasp, he held up Ragnarok and let his beloved sword take the ultimate punishment.

When Kayaba's skill hit Ragnarok, the impact let out a keen clang that almost sounded as if their swords were screeching against each other. It was a sound Kirito would never let himself forget. The friction seemed to let out sparks.

"What?!" Kayaba gasped, for the first time revealing genuine shock on his features. "It's not breaking…!"

Ragnarok felt warm in Kirito's hands, and though the blade seemed to groan under Kayaba's sword, it bore the weight for Kirito willingly. Kirito swallowed and felt the warmth on the sword's hilt transfer somewhere to his heart.

"Lizbeth made me this sword!" he declared. "She made it for me with her feelings! I won't let it break!"

Kayaba looked shocked, reviled and impressed all at once. He struck at Ragnarok again but the sword held firm. Kirito smiled. "Impossible…!" Kayaba exclaimed.

Kirito pushed against Ragnarok with all of his weight. Kayaba grunted loudly, leaning against his back foot. Seeing his opening, Kirito slashed at his opponent with all of his strength. Now it was Kayaba who was struggling to parry the bows.

The momentum of the match had somehow completely shifted.

"How are you…?" Kayaba spluttered. "You should be long past your mental exhaustion by now!"

But Kirito just kept on fighting, not even bothering to reply. It was all the answer he needed to say.

Kayaba was not done yet. His eyes flashing with purpose, he pushed his speed to the very highest parameters the game would allow. Running all the way around Kirito, he thrust his sword at his foes back.

Kirito's heart _jumped_.

Only just within the nick of time was he able to turn around and deflect the sword with his own.

Kayaba's eyes widened visibly. He had been running so fast he was unable to stop his momentum, and when Kirito blocked his attack he was still running headfirst onto a collision course. Kirito twisted out of the way, ducked and thrust his blade up at the gap in Kayaba's armour.

Kayaba didn't manage to avoid Kirito's counter entirely, but he did pull himself away before his HP counter hit zero. Then with an uncharacteristic roar, he slashed at Kirito, catching him off-guard. With a gasp, Kirito was sent hurtling backwards against the walls of the stand.

Both their HP bars were now in the red zone.

They were also panting heavily now, eying each other cautiously. They were outside of each other's ranges now. Whoever moved first would be the one initiating the final exchange of blows. The unorthodox duel had reached its climax and Kirito had no idea whether to move forward or stay behind. He was stuck in vertigo.

In that moment, there was dead silence in the arena.

And then-

"Go, Kirito!"

"Come on, you can do it!"

"We're cheering for you!"

It wasn't just his friends that he knew who were supporting him, he realised dimly. The entire crowd was united in their cheering.

To them, he was no longer Kirito the Beater. He was Kirito the Black Swordsman and the boy who had risked his life in order to save all of theirs.

It was almost more than he could take. Kirito swayed weakly and almost toppled altogether from the fatigue that had hit him suddenly. It was only the roar of the crowd that kept his consciousness afloat.

"I have to… win…!"

Kayaba regarded him calmly. They both knew the end had come. "We'll settle it, then," he said firmly, "with this last strike."

He raised his sword in the air, a glimmering instrument of death.

The blood rushed to Kirito's head, as it also must have done for Kayaba. With bloodcurdling roars, they came at each other and swung their swords with all the strength they could muster. It was no longer a matter of strategy but of survival and the end of the world itself.

(It was what it had always been, really.)

Two figures struck out and passed each other swiftly, landing on their knees with their backs turned to the other. They sheathed their swords in unison.

Two figures stood still for a very, very long moment.

Then they shattered into polygons and scattered to the winds.

* * *

_Once upon a time, there lived a swordsman who was all alone in the world. He fought monsters every day because he wanted to survive, even though he had never really known what it meant to live. _

_Then before he knew it, there were people around him. He made friends with the cheerful Klein, the dependable Agil, the adorable Silica, the smart-talking Lizbeth and the beautiful Asuna. Before he knew it, his world was full of colour and excitement. Every day, they went on adventures._

_Then one day, abruptly, their fairy tale ended forever._

* * *

Kirito opened his eyes. He didn't know where he was now. He realised, startled, that he was floating and that there was no ground at all to be seen.

"W-What…?" he choked out, unable to find the energy to say anything more or even to care overmuch.

Kayaba floated beside him. It was the same Kayaba he had encountered in the cell, the same thin man wearing the long white lab coat and a melancholy expression so deep no graphics engine in the world should ever have been able to replicate it.

"Well done, Kirito," said Kayaba gently. "You beat me."

"I thought it was a draw," said Kirito numbly.

Kayaba laughed.

"I suppose it was. I never said what I'd do if it was a draw."

Kirito said nothing. The two of them floated together, enjoying a silence beyond mortality.

At length, Kayaba spoke up again.

"Do you see that…?"

Kirito looked where Kayaba pointed. At first he did not recognise the sight before him, but after a moment, he quietly let out a sigh.

"Ah."

It was the tower of Aincrad, seen from the outside looking in. It was truly a majestic sight, the world's most beautiful prison.

Kirito only watched silently as the only world he had ever known for two whole years began to collapse on itself.

"I see you kept your promise, Kayaba," he said eventually.

"Yes," said Kayaba, his face melting into a tranquil smile. "I have no regrets."

Kirito wished he could say the same, but the sight he was gazing at left him unsettled and a nagging feeling pulled at him, as if he was forgetting something important.

"What about the players?" he asked. "The ones who died?"

"They won't return," Kayaba said shortly. "I suspect you already knew that."

Kirito did. His heart twinged and ached for Sachi, but the moment was soon lost forever, just like all the others.

"What about… Asuna and the others?"

"They'll be waking up shortly," Kayaba replied, looking sideways at him. "And so will you."

"Me? But… But I died, didn't I…?"

"The Nerve Gear doesn't kill you instantly. That's why a certain revival item could exist in this world and why your memory data could be saved when the game was cleared shortly after your death. In any case, I decided to let you live."

"B-But why?"

Kayaba chuckled.

"You won, didn't you? Even if it was a draw, I was happy someone came that close. Ah, perhaps I'm happier now that it was like that and not some other thing. To see my own systems, the ones I spent years debugging, outright surpassed by something beyond technology… You exceeded all my expectations."

Slowly, hesitantly, Kirito smiled too. He had a feeling that if there was no death game to think of, just two enthusiastic gamers in a room together, they might have been friends.

That feeling of admiration he held for the creator of SAO had never truly faded entirely, but then again, neither would the hate.

"Feeling more alive in a game world than in the real one," Kayaba went on, a little sadly, "that was how I felt when I was young like you. I let those other worlds consume me until not even they could capture my imagination. For they were always limited, you see, those other worlds. Just a pale imitation of what was right there in front of me. The only thing I could see in my mind's eye was a beautiful castle, more real than real. The older I got, the stronger that image became. And so I decided to make that world myself.

"And when it came to choosing who would populate this world of mine, I thought: 'Only someone who sees this world as reality can deserve to live here.'"

"That's why… the death game…"

In a twisted way, Kirito could almost understand it.

"But Kirito," Kayaba said gravely, "I lost sight of that dream too. In the end, I poured myself so much into this world all I could see in it were numbers and codes." He smiled ruefully. "That's why I thank you, Kirito, for making me see reality."

As he finished speaking, the floating tower of Aincrad had finished collapsing and nothing more of its endless depths remained.

Kayaba straightened up.

"Kirito, did you have fun playing Sword Art Online?"

Kirito turned to him, tears springing unbidden at his eyes. He didn't even know why he was crying, he simply was.

Something had ended, he knew that much. Some part of his life that he would never be able to live again.

Had he loved Aincrad that much, or was it simply the knowledge that he had grown up somehow and moved on, and this was the end result? That castle in the air, that fanciful world of his imagination, would never again be so real to him.

Perhaps it was a little of both.

"Yes," he admitted heavily, throwing his face into his hands. "It was the best game I ever played. I never wanted it to end."

Kayaba patted him on the shoulder. His touch was awkward and ginger, reminding Kirito, oddly, of himself.

"And now," he said softly, as the ending of the world drew to its close, "it's time for the New Game + to begin."

Kirito closed his eyes – softly, gently – and let the changes pull him apart, until his dream was lucid and his lucidity itself was nothing but a haunting, sweet nightmare.


	17. Epilogue

**Author's note: **Again, there are lots of deviations from canon here. The Sugou in this story isn't a total asshole and he didn't make ALO, for a start (so no, no Fairy Dance arc in this story). This also happily means that Asuna got to wake up straight away. I also scrapped that whole backstory about Kirito's original parents dying – he and Suguha are now blood siblings and their relationship has changed accordingly. It's important for the Kirito in this story not to have suffered quite as much personal tragedy, I think.

As for the other changes, they'll come up with the story.

Edit: This epilogue is different from the original version I posted.

**Epilogue: Yume Sekai**

_It doesn't matter if this world that opened in front of me is just a dream  
Even if I continue to wander, it will echo strongly and deep in my heart, forever and ever…_

* * *

"Onii-chan… onii-chan…! Stop daydreaming, onii-chan!"

It was his sister's voice that shook him from his reverie, just like the day he had first woken up. Kirigaya Kazuto blinked and sighed and looked up at a sky that was no longer a product of pixels and vapid dreams.

That day, it was raining as if the heavens had yawned wide open. The downpour was the heavy, sticky kind of rain, and to be under it would be like standing in the way of a washerwoman emptying out a bathtub of dirty soap water. It was just as well that he and his sister Suguha were sitting under the verandah, though Suguha was frowning, as if she did not understand the appeal of the kind of rain that made you look like a drowned rat.

It was the first time he had ever seen rain like this in two-and-a-half years. There had been rain in SAO, yes, but it was uncommon and restricted to only certain floors and even then, it never made you feel _wet_. No one got colds in SAO or even sneezed and, as he watched this thoroughly unromantic rain, he shivered and craved the warmth of a thick rug.

"Geez, onii-chan, you're freezing!" Suguha said exasperatedly beside him. She laid one of her warmer hands on his colder, thinner arm. "Come on, sit inside under the kotatsu, won't you?"

"I'm fine, Sugu."

"No, you are not fine. I haven't met anyone who is less fine than you."

He just laughed, leaning back and stretching his arm forward, watching his fingers flex without any coordination. His mouth twitched into a small, introspective smile.

There were some things in this real world that he wondered if he would ever get used to.

It was all in the little things, like how he still tried to bring up a menu when he was changing his clothes or how he never knew what to do with wrappers or crumbs. Even the desire to go to the toilet or waking in the morning with a stuffy feeling between his legs was mildly disorientating. Not that he had ever missed _that_.

But the hardest thing to get used to was his sheer weakness. In the beginning it had been especially awful: unable to even move his arms and legs, it was Suguha who had to push him around everywhere he needed to go in a wheelchair. The physiotherapy sessions were both painful and frustratingly slow at healing him. He had never been particularly sporty in the first place, and his level of fitness had only deteriorated further in his years of inactivity. Even after gradually regaining the use of his limbs, he could not run to the end of the street without stopping to pause for breath, and he was shocked by his inability to lift heavy things or even do the simple menial tasks that Suguha accomplished with ease.

He watched her kendo matches whenever he had the opportunity. She had always, he remembered, been a strong and fit young girl, and now in the span of two years she had become a national quarter-finalist.

"It's weird with you watching me," Suguha remarked the first time he had been a spectator. "Eek, I made so many mistakes, didn't I?"

If Suguha had made mistakes, she had covered them skilfully. She moved with a natural agility and grace that perhaps surpassed the speed-enhanced combo-moves in SAO. "You would've given Heathcliff a run for his money," he told her, unable to stop the erratic twinge in his chest as he said that. Suguha blushed; she had never really known how to take compliments, even when they were children.

So she just said, "Are you going to play kendo again, onii-chan?"

And he said, "I don't know."

Suguha looked down at her bamboo blade in her hand and then at him, as if comparing the two. Was it wistfulness that crossed her features or just sheer disappointment in him? He didn't know. As he gazed at her, her eyebrows scrunched together and, for a moment, she looked as helpless as he felt.

Then she smiled and said, "Come on, onii-chan. Let's do something together. Shopping, all right?"

"Okay."

The him of two years ago would never have consented to such a thing, but time brought as many reliefs as it did barriers.

As she started pushing his wheelchair, he clenched the sides of the arms and said, "I love you, Sugu."

She stopped pushing then, so that she could put her arms around him and squeeze.

"I love you too."

They really had changed. Closing his eyes, he tentatively leaned back and entrusted himself to her.

* * *

He hadn't played a single game in those six months. The physiotherapy took up all of his spare hours, and then there was studying. He had technically lost just two years, but he had forgotten so much that his level of education was below even that of the average fourteen-year-old. He had to go to reform school and relearn basic trigonometry and kanji and everything else in-between. Actually, it was a little embarrassing, especially when Suguha remarked on how easy his homework was.

But when he thought about it, perhaps he was just afraid. If he had to explain this feeling to someone, he probably wouldn't be able to describe it at all. If he didn't have games, who was he? What if he tried logging onto one of his games and everything felt different and nothing was fun anymore? What then?

It was Suguha who reminded him of the offline meeting. "Aren't you going to see all your friends from that game next week, onii-chan?"

"Ah… yeah."

"What's wrong? You don't look too happy…"

"No, I just wonder how everyone's doing…"

He knew that Suguha hated online games because of the anonymity. Perhaps she thought the friends he made there didn't mean as much as friends made in the real world. But she was wrong, he knew. The friends he made there were anonymous only in name; he certainly couldn't have fallen in _love _with someone who was just a shadow.

He had no idea how to explain that to her, so he just said, "Why don't you come along?"

"Huh? Me?" As he expected, she was more than a little startled. "Is that okay?"

"Of course it is."

"That's good." She smiled, eyes skirting to the side. "I've always wanted to understand this part of my brother…"

She went on to tell him that one year ago during his comatose period a girl in her school had commit suicide after being a victim of cyber-bullying.

"I didn't know that girl personally, but that's when I realised, you know? That it's not just SAO that's a death game. The online world is just like the real world… I think the friends you made there must have made a real impression on you."

"They did," he said, so relieved she understood. "They really did."

* * *

His friends took a shine to Suguha, just as he thought they would.

"Wow, Kirito!" Klein exclaimed, grinning as he noticed Kazuto walk in. He was sitting at the bar next to Agil, who appeared to still be using his wheelchair. "Been a while, hasn't it?"

The Dicey Café, Agil's café in real life, was an absolute hive of activity. It was filled with all sorts of players from their area, some of them whom Kazuto knew by face and name from the game, though he was close to none of them. He drifted towards Klein and Agil, smiling as he sat down beside them.

"That your sister, Kirito? Oh, wait, I should call you Kazuto now." Klein was unable to shake the grin off his face. "Nice to meet you, Kirito's little sis!"

And so Klein kept using Kazuto's online name anyway. Ah well, some habits were hard to shake. It was certainly difficult for him to think of Klein as Tsuboi Ryotaro or Agil as Andrew Gilbert Mills.

"So what's been up, you two?" Kazuto asked his two friends, though it was hard to hear them in the noisy and jubilant atmosphere. Not everyone had even finished arriving yet – he hadn't spotted the girls yet.

"Oh, nothing much," said Agil with a chuckle. "Physio was a real bitch, but otherwise I can't complain."

"So it was easy for you to settle back in, huh?" This surprised Kazuto somewhat. Maybe his two friends were being those eternally optimistic types as usual. Or perhaps, more realistically, adults just found that kind of change easier to cope with.

"Yeah, for me it was a bit surprising, actually. But the others have different stories to tell." Klein made a sweeping gesture with his hands. "For me, well, I guessed it was time for a change."

"How so?"

"Ah, well, I haven't really told you about my life, have I? Me and my old man never really got along, but after SAO we patched things up and now I've re-enrolled in my uni classes. You know, I picked arts subjects just to piss him off but whatever, that's old news. What's up on your end? Oh and sit down too, Kirito's little sis!"

"I'm Suguha," she said pleasantly, ever the cheerful social butterfly. "So what was my brother like in the game?"

"A loner," said Agil with a snort.

Kazuto rolled his eyes.

Someone tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around.

"Hahaha! I knew it'd be you, Kirito-kun! You even wear black in the real world! You owe me five hundred yen, Silica!"

"Oh, Liz!" said Kazuto, smiling. He had recognised her instantly from her voice, but without her customised pink hair from the game, she looked almost totally different. Her hair was brown and rather straight and her face, though still freckled in a homely, girl-next-door kind of way, was somewhat thinner than he remembered.

Of course, everyone seemed to have lost weight since SAO.

"What are you looking at me like that for, Kirito-kun? Er, something wrong with my face?" Lizbeth touched her cheeks a little nervously.

"I was just thinking you look very cute today, Liz."

Lizbeth opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and then closed it again. She was, for the very first time in her life, utterly speechless. Her cheeks coloured.

"And you too, Silica," Kazuto went on, patting the smaller girl standing next to Lizbeth on the head.

"Hee hee! It's so nice to see you again, Kirito-san!"

It seemed to him that the two girls were healthy and spirited enough. "So where's Asuna?" he asked. He had been missing her; though he had chatted with her online quite often since being released from hospital, he still hadn't met her in the flesh. He was actually a little confused. Since they had kissed, did this mean they were boyfriend and girlfriend now? He had never found the right occasion to ask her, thinking maybe it would be best to discuss things like relationships in person…? There were a lot of things he could feel went unsaid between them and it was all kind of awkward to him. Then again, when had he ever done social interactions correctly?

Lizbeth waved her hand apologetically. "She can't come. Family issues to sort out first, she said."

It was the same thing she had told him via email. He sighed.

Just when would he be able to see her?

* * *

At the offline meeting, they talked all day, catching up with all sorts of things, from exchanging SAO stories to discussing their physiotherapy experiences. At one point, Silica and Lizbeth unveiled an enormous chocolate cake with 'Congratulations on clearing the game!' written on the top in icing. That was shared around with everyone at the gathering, along with free drinks from Agil's bar. "I'm not doing this every day!" he laughingly insisted when everyone raised their drinks to say cheers for him.

It was surprising to Kazuto how many relative strangers approached him to congratulate him for his involvement in clearing the game. His being a Beater was well and truly water under the bridge now that everyone was more or less safe and well.

Then there were the people who didn't seem to have cared about that at all to begin with.

An elderly couple shook his hand. The old man's grip was surprisingly firm and his smile was equally friendly.

"So you're the young lad who cleared the game? My gosh, you're very young!"

Kazuto smiled sheepishly. He had always had something of a baby face.

"My wife's been dying to meet you," the old man went on, his eyes twinkling. "Mind you, she didn't play the game, so she has no idea what it's like in there."

"Very dangerous, wasn't it?" said the old lady, who seemed to be a jittery type. "Your parents must have been worried!"

The old man chuckled. "It wasn't very dangerous for me! I just did fishing all day."

Kazuto wasn't used to talking to elderly people, but there was something so irresistibly laid-back about this old man that he found himself being pulled into conversation. The man's name was Nishida and he worked at a company that was responsible for linking up the SAO servers. This was probably why he had ended up in the game in the first place, but he seemed to have no regrets.

"Ah, that game, it was a very good game, wasn't it? Bit more elaborate than the old Space Invaders!" He let out a hearty laugh.

Beside him, his wife merely sighed. "That game, it forced him into early retirement."

"Well, yes," Nishida admitted. "I could have kept up in the IT industry when I was younger, but now that I'm old and those two years…" He shrugged. "It was a very enjoyable time, probably because I was never in danger. I can see why you young ones are so keen on these MMO things."

"I guess… there's something in it for everyone, huh?"

Nishida looked at him and nodded.

"A terrible, terrible game it was too, so many lives lost. But sometimes you have to make the best of it and it was an easy thing to do there."

He shook Kazuto's hand once again.

"Well, it was a pleasure talking to you."

When the old couple was gone, Kazuto sat alone for a moment, sipping reflectively on his soda. The next person who approached him was far from one of the older players of the game – it was Silica, one of the very youngest.

"Kirito-san, is it okay if I sit next to you?"

Silica had grown since the last time he had seen her. Though she was still short, puberty had well and truly started for her and she moved with less of the blitheness she had as a girl. Like Suguha, she had started to develop curves, seemingly overnight.

"Kirito-san, I've always wanted to thank you," Silica said as she pulled up a seat next to him. "You saved me three times. I'll never forget that."

"Three times?"

"Yeah." Silica started counting off with her fingers. "First with that monster, then against that PKing guild and then because you got that revival item you gave Klein-san."

The truth was that he had never done any of those rescues specifically for Silica's sake, but when she smiled, he felt happy too, so he didn't mention it.

"When you were my big brother for a day, it made me very happy too," Silica continued. "I miss Pina, but it's so nice to see you again."

Then she hugged him. Not being very used to that kind of physical contact, he was somewhat startled.

But also, admittedly, rather touched.

"Thanks, Silica. It was… fun partying with you too."

"And I was right, too!" Silica said triumphantly. "About your little sister!"

"What about my little sister?"

"She doesn't hate you at all. I can see it, Kirito-san."

Yes, Silica had mentioned that, hadn't she? When he had told her that she reminded him of Suguha, that was what she had assured him: _"I'm sure your sister doesn't hate you."_

He glanced towards Suguha across the room, her eyes lit up and her manner vivacious. Even though they lived under the same roof, they couldn't have lived in two more thoroughly different worlds. But here Suguha was, tentatively reaching into her world and he into hers.

"Maybe you're right, Silica."

* * *

After a couple of hours, people began to leave, one by one. When it was Lizbeth's time to go, she gestured towards Kazuto, beckoning him towards her. "Listen, there's something I want to talk to you about in private," she said to him. She wasn't looking him in the eyes, so this made him feel a little apprehensive.

"What is it, Liz?" he asked as they stepped out of the café together.

For a moment, Lizbeth didn't say anything. She merely fiddled with her clothing and sighed. Though in SAO she had worn her blacksmith uniform (which resembled a maid outfit more than anything), out in the real world she seemed far more comfortable in pants and a loose-fitting T-shirt. Lizbeth had always felt like such a genuine person to him, but seeing her like this only convinced him of that further.

She also happened to be blushing bright red.

"You know, Kirito-kun, I always really liked you."

"I always liked you too."

"… As more than a friend."

"Oh."

Actually, he had always sort of known that. He just… didn't know how to respond.

"You don't have to say anything, Kirito-kun!" Lizbeth insisted quickly, spotting the uneasiness on his face. "I know it's not me you like – it's Asuna, right? I mean – I mean I could tell just from the way you looked at her…"

He blinked. He hadn't realised that kind of thing was so easy for the outward observer to tell. He could feel his cheeks start to burn with embarrassment at the thought.

"Well, I can understand," Lizbeth went on, averting her gaze. "Asuna's really pretty and strong and I'm not really either of those things, haha…"

"I think you're pretty and strong." He spoke as if this was all very obvious to him because, quite frankly, it was. "I noticed that right from the beginning about you, Liz."

"St-Stop it! You'll make me fall harder for you!"

"Oh, right." He scratched the back of his head; they had come to an impasse. "It's not," he began, a little falteringly. He had never articulated his softer feelings into words before. "It's not any particular _thing _like that which I like about Asuna, so…"

"You like her because it's her, right?" She smiled. "Don't _worry_, Kirito-kun! People don't need a reason to fall in love! It just… is, you know?"

"Yeah…"

Lizbeth turned away, directing her gaze up towards the sky. "These feelings I had… to me, it didn't matter that it was a game. No matter what, it was real. And that's why… that's why I don't regret being in SAO, even despite everything… Because if I didn't go there, I would never have met you, Kirito-kun. You were my first love, you hear that?"

"Loud and clear, Liz," he said, because Lizbeth was actually talking rather loudly. Passersby glanced at them as they walked past.

"Heh heh, you and Asuna'll make a good couple." Lizbeth turned back to him and grinned. She was back to her old self. "Tomorrow, I think I'll cut my hair…"

* * *

When everyone else had finally gone home, he stayed behind and helped Agil clean up the café. Suguha had gone to her club activities and Kazuto started wiping the dishes. Klein had stayed behind too, also offering to help.

"Hey Kirito, you gonna bring your little sis around again?" Klein asked, nudging him.

"Only if she wants to…"

"How about you make it so me and her go out alone toge-"

"No."

Klein whined. "I thought we were pals, man! We're, like, old war buddies! Friends forever and all that."

"Not if you hit on my sister," said Kazuto, looking distinctly unamused.

Klein sighed and took the defeat heroically.

Agil wheeled into the back kitchen where the two of them were wiping dishes. He snorted. "You guys take ages!"

"Didn't wash a dish for two years," Klein muttered.

"Didn't wash a dish ever, more like it," Agil retorted.

"Touché."

Watching this familiar banter play out, Kazuto smiled. Vaguely, he wondered why Agil was still wheelchair-bound, especially since everyone else had managed to finish their physiotherapy by now. Considering his strength and mental endurance, Agil should have been among the first…

(Weeks later, Kazuto found out the answer from Agil's wife. When he raised the question to her, she told him, looking a little surprised that he did not know: "My husband's been like that since he was a child. Ah, you see, that's why I bought the SAO game for him, just so he could walk again…")

* * *

At night, when he was finished with his studying, he always made time to talk to Asuna. She seemed forever busy studying, so she preferred to email him instead of chat over IM. Her parents, she told him, were extremely interested in her education and, _well_, she had missed two years, after all. He could understand that, though his catch-up classes were far less intensive than hers were.

Her full name was Yuuki Asuna. He was shocked to find out that she was actually the daughter of a CEO of an electronics company; no wonder her father had such high expectations of her. Asuna wrote cheerfully about her studies, but, unable to see her face, Kazuto was unable to tell how she really felt about it all. He couldn't help but think that there was something dull about their conversations, as if Asuna was seeking comfort through the blandness. Neither of them said what they were really thinking.

Or maybe he was just reading too much into it.

"_Listen, Asuna_," he wrote to her one day. "_Don't you think it's better if we meet up, even if it's just for a little while? We could go out somewhere and eat, maybe watch a movie. How about it?"_

It didn't matter what they did together – he just wanted to see her.

Asuna's reply was a long time coming. She kept him waiting much longer than usual. About an hour later she replied with: "_What's your phone number?"_

As soon as he told her, the phone in his house rang. "Kazuto, it's for you!" his mother called out.

_Oh, Asuna._

His heart thumping in anticipation, he took the phone and retreated back to his bedroom. "Yes?"

"Kirito-kun?"

It was the first time he had heard her voice since the game had ended. And just like back then, it sounded very beautiful to his ears.

In the six months since he had emerged from the death game with his life intact, he had had time to think deeply about Asuna. The circumstances of them constantly being in danger had prevented this kind of introspection earlier. Now he had come to the conclusion that he was in love with her. And why not? Even something like playing some stupid trivia game with her had ended up meaning a lot to him.

"Asuna, does this mean we're going to see each other finally? This weekend, are we-?"

"Kirito-kun," she broke in. "I'm sorry, but I can't be seeing you. I wish I could have told this to your face, but I can't."

His heart sank. "What, you're not-?"

"It's not that I don't like you or anything like that! Please don't think that! I just… don't really have the time to go out. And my parents don't really want me having a boyfriend right now. I really, really like you, Kirito-kun. I'll definitely see you when I've passed my exams again. So…"

"I'll wait for you," he said firmly. "I'll definitely wait for you."

"I guess… this is how reality is, huh? It's not like the game… I'm so sorry for this, Kirito-kun."

They talked a little longer, but Asuna soon had to get back to studying. "Don't worry about me," he told her. "Do your best for your exam."

They exchanged cheerful goodbyes. As soon as she was gone, his lips slid downwards.

The truth was this: by the time she hung up, he had already resigned himself to the fact that his first - and probably only - girlfriend was one who he would never see.

* * *

Slowly, the magic faded.

People adapted. He had learned that from the game. No matter what crazy situation you were placed in, people could be remarkably resilient creatures. If he could learn to adapt to SAO, he could learn to adapt to real life.

As for Asuna, she immersed herself so thoroughly in reality, she clocked the hard mode easy. When he told that to her over the phone as a joke, she laughed, harder than he had ever heard her laugh. Come to think of it, she had never been so happy inside the game.

"This is what you've always wanted, isn't it?" he said.

"Yeah," she said quietly. "It is."

Slowly but surely, they stopped talking about SAO in their conversations. They could only talk about the mundane things, but perhaps there was a kind of magic in that too. Whatever it was, it was a magic she probably felt more than he did. Her happiness made him wistful somehow.

"Hey, Kirito-kun, have you been reading the newspapers?" she asked him one day.

"I've been checking the news feed on the Internet... why?"

"Then you'd know about the legal stuff going on with the PKers."_  
_

Kazuto did know. In fact, it was a very messy situation, probably because it was so unprecedented. The Japanese courts had trouble deciding whether the PKers in the game were liable for murder. On one hand, killing someone in a game held no consequences, but SAO was far different from that kind of game. The conditions of death were known to every player, so no one could claim ignorance. On the other hand, no player in the game had any concrete proof that the death penalty was actually true, so at worst, players could only be charged for manslaughter. To make matters even more complicated, since all the game data was deleted, there was no way of knowing who had been a killer and who had not been. In the end, the courts decided not to persecute anyone for in-game crimes. Still, to be on the safe side, every player had been interviewed extensively by the police and subsidised counselling sessions from the country's leading psychiatrists were offered to anyone who wanted it.

Personally, Kazuto had not felt he had needed the counselling. That was the popular opinion, since a certain amount of mental fortitude was needed to survive in the game. But he did know of some people who suffered clear symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and who still required psychiatric help to this day. He had come to realise that for a lot of the players, the bigger underlying mental issue was not dealing with their actual experiences within the game but learning to adapt into normal society again. The real stress came from those who had lost jobs and stability in life, or who had lost family or friends during the two-year gap. This was all just compounded by a distinct feeling of physical ineptitude.

Kazuto understood that all too well.

He wondered how Asuna was faring in that respect. "Do you really think you're a murderer, Asuna?" he wanted to ask, but that felt too pointed a question for him to bring up. So instead, he said: "You shouldn't worry about that kind of stuff."

As soon as he sent that message, he felt it was rather insensitive of him, like he was telling her he didn't understand what she was going through.

After all, people changed after they came out of SAO.

"It's weird, you know," she remarked. "I had this big leadership position in the game, but now I don't feel like I did an awful lot."

"Without you, the game would never have been cleared," he told her. "Don't forget that."

"I'm not forgetting it. It's just..." She sighed. "I don't think you understand, Kirito-kun."

He wanted to tell her that he did understand, he did, but these words were somehow difficult to shape and express. When he was Kirito, he thought he had forgotten the meek fourteen-year-old boy who had first put on the Nerve Gear, but after returning, it turned out that that Kirigaya Kazuto was not as far away from memory as he had once assumed.

The strength he had obtained in SAO was nothing but an illusion. Asuna, of course, had realised that too.

"Hey, Asuna. Have you ever thought of playing another video game when you're done with your studies?"

"Of course not. Why, have you, Kirito-kun?"

But to that, he had no answer.

* * *

Kayaba Akihiko was dead. Days after the end of the SAO incident, Kayaba's body was discovered in a mountain cottage hidden in an inconspicuous forest in the Nagano prefecture. It appeared he had died on the same day the game ended; his brain fried in much the same way the unfortunate players who got game over. It was a curious thing, because he had specifically mentioned how the Nerve Gear did not kill him. Perhaps he had wired up his brain to the entire server of Aincrad and when it fell, so did his consciousness. He had died alongside the beloved tower of his dreams.

Kazuto had to admit to feeling little remorse over this hated man's death, but at the same time, a brief thought had flashed through his brain:

_What a shame. That man was brilliant._

Incidentally, at around the same time, the VRMMORPG industry collapsed, or to be more precise, it never took off to begin with since no one had the knowledge or skills to make a game anything like Sword Art Online.

Moreover, the public outcry against the SAO incident was enormous. In fact, it was so huge it affected the video game industry in general. An uncertainty of death hung over the entire industry like a cloud and as a result, many companies went out of business. By the time Kazuto had regained consciousness, the slump had recovered somewhat as it became clear that the SAO incident was the doing of a single madman. Even so, it was no longer quite a prolific industry to work in and for Kazuto, who had always fancied himself working in that area when he was older, the future cast a pale and uncertain light.

Eight months after the end of SAO, a woman came knocking on his door, introducing herself as Koujirou Rinko. She had travelled all the way from the Miyagi prefecture to Saitama, just to visit the Kirigaya residence. At first, Kazuto assumed she was after his parents, but she stopped him when she touched his arm and said, "I knew Kayaba Akihiko."

After that, he had to listen to her.

"We were colleagues in university, he and I," she explained, at first calmly and then more falteringly as her grim tale progressed. "I was the one who took care of his body during those two years. I know now I should have stopped him, but you could say I was charmed by his vision, and so I helped him. When the death game started, I should have killed him. I went into his room while he was unconscious but… I couldn't do it. And then, not long after that, he told me that if I had killed him, everyone inside the game would have died too because he had linked his mind directly to the game server… It turns out that he… he was working on this."

"What's this?" Kazuto asked as he looked down at the item the woman showed him.

"It's called a World Seed. Before he died, he asked me to entrust it to a player named 'Kirito'. It took me a long while before I could bring myself to track you down, but here I am today."

Kazuto took the World Seed and turned it over once in his hand.

"It's a powerful tool," Koujiro Rinko explained gingerly. "It contains the entire server of SAO and the program can make any kind of VRMMORPG imaginable. Limitless quests, limitless customisation. I hope you understand what this means."

Kazuto did.

_This might not be the end of Sword Art Online._

"The future of the VRMMORPG itself lies in that seed," said Koujiro Rinko. "Whether you use the World Seed to confront reality or escape it, just know this – that thing is a double-edged sword."

Kazuto closed his eyes. He thought of the world he had spent two years of his life fighting in, he thought of despair and weakness, of a man who threw himself off the tower of Aincrad and embraced death. He thought of Sachi and the last words he never got to hear her say. He thought of his friends, he thought of Suguha.

He thought of Asuna.

"Did Kayaba say anything else?" he asked, frowning.

"No," said the woman who had once been Kayaba's colleague. "He didn't. By the looks of it, you know everything you need to make your decision already. Whether you use the World Seed or discard it, that's not my dilemma. I'm sorry I can't be of more help to you, but he told me you had to make the decision on your own."

She stood up and said farewell, and long after she was gone, Kazuto was still sitting where he was, turning the World Seed over in his hand and watching the glimmering light inside it shine without abating.

**fin**

_Forever, forever echoing...  
Softly, softly shining..._

Afterword

Sometimes, it's surprising what a nostalgia trip can reveal to you. The other day, I happened to come across a short novel dated from 2002 – the author was none other than my eight-year-old self. It appeared even in those days I was a fanfiction writer. The plot was what I suppose you would get if you sloppily mixed elements of _Pokémon_, _Dragon Ball Z_ and _The Legend of Zelda _into one story and it was written with quite possibly the most abysmal handwriting that has ever seen the light of day. While my mastery of the English grammar has undoubtedly improved, I could not help but note my younger self's curious fixation with writing battles out with excruciating detail. Some people just don't change their stripes!

In a lot of ways, _Double-edged Sword _was most definitely a retreading of familiar ground. While I consider myself a pure experimentalist as a writer, I don't think I could have completed NaNoWriMo as one. The last two chapters are a different matter. I had the time, so I took risks again and while some turned out well, others didn't, and I've had to reevaluate this epilogue a number of times. I will be frank here: I don't think this is my best effort at storytelling. I made some pretty embarrassing errors while writing this, but let's not go over all of that here.

About the ending: in canon, we're told straight out what Kirito did with the World Seed (being vague here for non-LN readers), but here, it's deliberately ambiguous, though one of two things happened. Does Kirito make a new VRMMORPG and become Kayaba's spiritual successor or does he throw away the World Seed and embrace reality entirely? That's something for you the reader to decide. I can see some people decrying what I wrote as a corruption of the fundamental theme of the canon, and I accept that criticism, though I will not change anything.

Still, in general I was very surprised by the positive reception this story got. Thank you so much to everyone who read, favorited, alerted or reviewed this – I really valued every piece of feedback I got, even if I didn't always respond. While I probably won't write another SAO fic, it was honestly a lot of fun living in Aincrad for a month. I sincerely hope you enjoyed this story. Thank you again and goodbye!

Edit: After some careful thinking, I've decided to cut out the final scene from the original ending. I think the message in the epilogue comes across just fine without it.


End file.
